John Wayne on the American Flag

The Duke should have asked Sheldon Cooper on "Fun with Flags".  He might have doubled the viewership.

Sharpening Occam's Razor

George Lucas on Science and Star Wars

May the Fourth Be With You!

Wil Wheaton on Being a Geek

Bernadette Rostenkowski Wolowitz on Life

Stephen Hawking on Knowledge

 

 Pearls of wisdom from "Dr. Sheldon Cooper's" (Jim Parson)   Fun with Words friend. 

  

 For all those feeling a bit sketchy about this brief history of time, let the Bare Naked Ladies fill things in ...

      

Comparative Conventions Star Wars Conceit

Clearly, a jestful geek from the left side of the universe constructed this clever Star Wars conceit.

But I am inclined to invoke the insight of Dr. Shelton Cooper, PhD from The Big Bang Theory: "I prefer to let George Lucas disappoint me in the order he intended." Remember that Episodes IV to VI came before I to III.




Bazinga!

Besides, this sort sort of ad hominem attack capitalizes on fear.  And you know what Master Yoda said about that: 

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate

Unboxing Popular Culture

Nerds can be willing to spend enormous amounts on kitschy tchotchke which seems to relive their fantasy obsessions from childhood. Think of the gaggle of geeks from the television sit-com “Big Bang Theory” where Shelton wanted to get his vintage Apple II signed by the great Woz. Or the prized mint-in-box Wesley Crusher Star Trek action figure from Will Wheaton. Or Shelton being tempted to play with the mint-in-box Star Trek Transformer Device by a hallucinated voice of Leonard Nimoy.  The value to collectors revolves around signatures and being pristine. Ironically, the obsession to be mint-in-box usually negates the pleasure of enjoying the item.

This phenomenon is not just a Hollywood exaggeration. Fan boys are fulminating over the auction of a rare Star Wars promotional poster.  The 1978 poster seems kind of silly, with the ‘Droids bedecked with philharmonic instruments to promote the Star Wars Symphonic Suite.  Even though the item is considered somewhat uncool because of the symphonic campiness, it is a rare piece of memorabilia AND it is signed by Star Wars creator George Lucas.  Therefore this geek grotesquerie will probably sell at auction for between $5,000 and $8,000.

Rather than ridicule the Star Wars Symphonic Suite as an unopened package for being cute yet conventional marketing, I suggest enjoying the symphonic suite composed by John Williams.  It is a contemporary classical piece that resonates in the popular culture.







It is certainly has more class than "Nick Winters, the Lounge Lizard" (a.k.a. Billy Murray) and his Lounge Medley from Saturday Night Live.