Stripped of its state patron, the Berliner Ensemble had to turn to the West Berlin authorities for funding.

ECONOMIST: The irresistible rise of Bertolt Brecht

Michelangelo was the son of a local official and had the Pope for a patron, while Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn grew up fatherless and was sent by the state to prison camps.

FORBES: Thought Leaders

In California, a state Mr Gore must win, Mr Nader, a kind of patron saint of the anti-corporate left, might attract as much as 10% of the vote.

ECONOMIST: Praying for a break | The