David Geffen David Geffen speaks onstage at the “American Masters – Inventing David Geffen” panel at the Beverly Hilton hotel on July 22, 2012. David Geffen speaks onstage at the “American Masters – Inventing David Geffen” panel at the Beverly Hilton hotel on July 22, 2012. Hebert / FilmMagic / Getty Images) The anonymous gift is pretty much extinct, not that it ever got well-established in the U.S. Lincoln Center was selling the naming rights for Avery Fisher Hall, and David Geffen was the highest bidder

Poor David Geffen. Advocates of this position, as you might imagine, are horrified by Geffen’s apparent insistence on slapping his name on every theater, museum, hospital and building he touches.

But they miss the point that it was Lincoln Center’s leaders who were shopping around the naming rights for the concert hall. data-content-section=”Opinion” data-content-type=”htmlstory” data-content-thumbnail=”http://www.trbimg.com/img-54ff4069/turbine/la-ol-poll-uc-irvine-flag-ban-constitutional-amendment-20150310″ data-content-url=”/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-poll-uc-irvine-flag-ban-constitutional-amendment-20150310-htmlstory.html”>

With negotiators closing in on a major and hotly disputed trade pact for the Pacific region, the Obama administration is pressing Congress again to pass a bill that would require an up-or-down vote on the agreement with no amendments or filibusters.