I'm a nerd! That felt good.

Are you a nerd?

Are you a geek, a dweeb or a dork?

Are you a sci-fi-watching, fantasy-novel-reading, comic-book-hoarding techie?

I am. I know that's hard to believe, that beneath this hardened veneer of macho coolness lies a twit wearing a pocket protector and clutching a Dark Knight graphic novel.

But it's true.

Saturday, one of my idols, Leonard Nimoy, turned eighty years old. I'm not sure how many Vulcan years that is, but the guy is still going strong. Logical.

I had to throw in a Spockism, there. His full name is S'Chn T'Gai Spock, which sounds like a sneeze and a cough. He was born to a human mother and Vulcan father, and he's an intergalactic Dirty Harry, with ice water coursing through his veins, and in S'Chn's case, the water is green.

I've referenced Star Trek a couple of times in my blog, most notably when we we played it during second grade recess. We chose characters like we would for a pickup soccer game, but the two captains were Spock and Kirk. Usually it went something like, "Since you've got Scotty and Chekov, and I've got McCoy and Sulu, I'll give you the rest of the first graders (who are still standing, waiting to be chosen), since they'll be killed off early like they are on the show."

Game on.

It was all about a show which only ran three seasons and was in syndication by the time we were old enough to emulate its stars. One of my favorite elementary school era jokes involved Star Trek, and is told as follows:

What do the Starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common?
They each circle Uranus and wipe out Klingons (insert nasally laughter).

To this day, I love that joke, that show and all of the movies involving that original cast. The nerd in me has persevered and apparently, I'm not alone in the wilderness of Dork National Forest.

I'd like to thank my friend, Scott, for calling my attention to this piece in The Guardian about the unprecedented popularity of the rock group, Rush. This power trio from Toronto has been rocking since 1974, but never really achieved popular acclaim, due to their "nerdy" lyrical themes of fantasy and science fiction.

The band  is now experiencing a renaissance due to a massive, international group of fans, mostly male, between the ages of thirty and fifty, who've decided to proclaim loudly and proudly, "We love Rush, we're not ashamed to admit it and we'll shout it from here to Narnia." Arenas have been selling out worldwide for these guys, during an otherwise lean era for most other musical acts.

Rush has stayed true to its base, and after thirty-seven years, is finally reaping what it's sown. Sure, we dork dudes can always stoop to the shallow musings of Van Halen or KISS, but nothing yanks our chains like "invisible airwaves crackling with life" (as referenced in my favorite Rush tune, The Spirit of Radio).

So here's to Leonard Nimoy, Rush, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, D.C. Comics and their legions of loyal followers.

May we all live long and prosper.