That's a lot of pennies

Fascinating story of copper heiress Huguette Clark, who has just marked her 104th birthday. Probably there wasn't much celebration; and not just because she's presumably somewhat ailing in her hospital bed. But because she's so reclusive that the last known photograph of her was taken in 1930. She's got a 21,666-square-foot house on 23 acres in Santa Barbara. Course she hasn't visited it in more than half a century.

To add some local color to the story, I note that she's the daughter of William Andrews Clark, for whom UCLA's Clark Library was named. The books, the building and the city block on which it stands were donated to UCLA by Clark Jr. -- Huguette's half-brother... after Clark Sr.'s first wife's "death, William began an affair with his teenage ward" -- who also founded the LA Philharmonic. Anyway, that's the kind of money we're talking about here.