Genius Sperm

The TLS provides a review of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank.

The Nobel Prize sperm bank was ill-conceived, but it was the seminal influence on the generations of fertility institutes that followed it. Established in California in 1980, the "Repository for Germinal Choice" was the brainchild of Robert Graham, a seventy-four-year-old optometrist who had made millions of dollars by inventing shatterproof plastic eyeglasses. Graham was one of those uniquely American characters, the self-made millionaire inventor who, assuming that success at making money imbues a man with wisdom on all matters of social importance, sets out boldly with an entrepreneurial but delusional scheme to improve mankind. And I do mean mankind literally, womankind generally not being very interesting to these fellows.

Good old California. Where else will you find eccentric millionaires trying to improve humanity through a Nobel Prize sperm bank? If anyone else out there has good examples of such Californailia, please do chime in.