Sarah: Gifted

There's a story, almost a parable, of how Marcel Duchamp suspended a book of Euclidian geometry by a string outside his window for several months and in all kinds of weather, and then presented the result to his sister as a birthday present, and of course as an art object. A lovely idea. Almost a philosophical gesture, a kind of ironic critique of Euclid by the elements.
Charles Simic, Negative Capability and Its Children

Nice idea, Duchamp, but it can't hold a candle to what my brother gave me for my birthday last summer. I think this picture really captures the class and elegance of that gift:

And what a happy birthday it was.