“… hardly anything I'd write a New York Times article about.” Given that NYT devotes an entire section to the goings-on of old money New Yorkers, I’m not sure

“… hardly anything I'd write a New York Times article about.” Given that NYT devotes an entire section to the goings-on of old money New Yorkers, I’m not sure the bar is all that high. And hey sometimes coincidences are just that, but other times they can lead to profound theories. I’m reminded of Monstrous Moonshine for which Borcherds earned the Fields Medal in 1998: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstrous_moonshine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstrous_moonshine The term "monstrous moonshine" was coined by Conway, who, when told by John McKay in the late 1970s that the coefficient of q (namely 196884) was precisely one more than the degree of the smallest faithful complex representation of the monster group (namely 196883), replied that this was "moonshine" (in the sense of being a crazy or foolish idea). Thus, the term not only refers to the monster group M; it also refers to the perceived craziness of the intricate relationship between M and the theory of modular functions.