When my friends and I used to act out Star Trek episodes—favorites were “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “The Devil in the Dark,” and, naturally, “Arena”—everyone wanted to be Kirk. There was a logic to it, I suppose: Kirk always got the girl. But even at that tender age, I had already come to terms with the fact that, somehow, even if I were Kirk, I’d never get the girl. Spock it was, then.
True story: I practiced raising my left eyebrow independently of my right for hours in front of a mirror, just so I could register disdain toward anyone who acted illogically. (I also practiced the Vulcan nerve pinch on my older sister, which didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped.) As for the hand signal—the “Vulcan greeting,” I think it’s called—please. I could do it with both hands by the time I was in third grade.
Forty years on, and this, a gift from my daughter, is what I drink my afternoon tea out of:
Yes, yes, I know—it was just a TV show. And a campy one at that. But honestly, it’s hard to imagine my childhood without it.
Sadly, Leonard Nimoy died this morning at 83. He lived long, and he prospered. Requiescat in pace, Mr. Spock. You were a nerd before it was cool.
