It is close to certain that ArisKatsaris was joking (imitating the format of an exchange where one person says something about, say, a political candidate named John Smith, and the other person says “Oh, John Smith, isn’t that the guy who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a few years ago?” and the first person says “I dunno, probably a different John Smith”, while subverting it by (seemingly very confidently) applying it to a comparatively very uncommon name).
Since the Zvi who posts here is indeed the same Zvi Mowshowitz he speaks of, it is close to certain that the one who donated the money is as well.
Zvi is one of the leaders of the New York Less Wrong community, actually. Munchkinism generalizes.
I played Magic against Zvi using one of his own decks, and the deck won—I was there, but I wasn’t involved.
It is close to certain that ArisKatsaris was joking (imitating the format of an exchange where one person says something about, say, a political candidate named John Smith, and the other person says “Oh, John Smith, isn’t that the guy who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a few years ago?” and the first person says “I dunno, probably a different John Smith”, while subverting it by (seemingly very confidently) applying it to a comparatively very uncommon name).
...wow, I entirely failed to pick up on that. >.<
I was just joking, as ata explained. Sorry for the confusion. :-)