Guess which one of these is owned by the computer genius born in 1948 who grew up under Soviet rule?
Guess which one of these is owned by the computer genius born in 1948 who grew up under Soviet rule? The Stranger

Deep in a story Wednesday about campaign contributions to Donald Trump, the Seattle Times mentioned that Trump's "only big-name backer here is ex-Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi. He sent the Trump campaign the maximum primary donation of $2,700 on Aug. 16, according to the Federal Election Commission."

Charles Simonyi is also an avid collector of art, particularly the comics-based Pop art of Roy Lichtenstein, which he is forever lending to museums around the world for exhibitions—including last year's Pop Departures at Seattle Art Museum. So while I have never met Charles Simonyi, I feel like I run into him all the time. He funds arts organizations directly through his Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences.

I've always thought of Simonyi's preference in art as an artifact of his particular moment in post-war/Cold War time. His Wikipedia page says that in secondary school he worked as a nighwatchman over a big Soviet mainframe computer, and I picture him there in the dark bureucratic lab with light shining on him as though he were in a Bond movie.

But he's also clearly a technical genius. This is the man who built the technical foundation of Microsoft Word. And Excel. He has endowed professorships at universities including Stanford, where he earned his PhD in computer science. At Oxford University, he endowed the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science.

Now Simonyi, like Trump, lives large. He's paid to travel to outer space—twice. And he's crossed paths with Trump in at least one conspicuous way—Simonyi was Martha Stewart's longtime boyfriend, including the years during which she feuded with the Hairpiece. She "reignited" the feud this past September. Wildly speculating here, I'll say that hey, who knows, maybe Simonyi is getting back at his ex by throwing his support behind her nemesis. But that seems silly.

So what is it exactly that Simonyi likes about Trump for President?

Simonyi made his donation back in August, before Trump really turned up the crazy (okay, well, turned it up even more than it previously seemed it could go). But Trump has never been a friend to those Simonyisque fields of science, reason, and statistics.

I think there's a joke to be made here. Maybe it even involves Roy Lichtenstein. But I'm a little too depressed and frightened to find it.

I've reached out to Simonyi directly through the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, and will report more if I hear back.