David Simon, creator of TV hit ‘The Wire’, has it in writing from an unimpeachable source: he is a genius. Well at least he he has been given one of 23 grants handed out this year by the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation. Nicknamed the ‘genius’ grants, because they go to an unpredictable list of brilliant people with no specific entry process or criteria, this year’s winners include actor and director David Cromer as well as a sculptor, an animator, a fiction writer and notable scientists specialising in fields as diverse as tumor growth and DNA research.