Quote of the Day (Wil Wheaton, on Nerds and a Changing World)

“[W]hen I was growing up, being a nerd meant that I liked things that were a little weird, that took a lot of effort to appreciate and understand. It meant that I loved science, playing board games, reading books, and really understanding what went on in the world instead of just riding the planet through space.

“When I was a little boy, people really teased me about that and made me feel like there was something wrong with me for loving those things. Now that I’m an adult, I’m a professional nerd, and the world has changed. I think we have realized that being a nerd is not about what you love but about how you love.”— Actor-writer Wil Wheaton, “Why It’s Great To Be a Nerd,” Reader’s Digest, January 2014

I hope that elementary and high school students read this quote and come to understand, sooner rather than later, than it’s okay to be yourself, even if it does mean that some others may regard you as a nerd.

Maybe you’ll even grow up to star in the next iteration of the Star Trek franchise, or even guest star in The Big Bang Theory: The Next Generation.

(The photo accompanying this post, of Wil Wheaton speaking at the 2012 Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona, was taken by Gage Skidmore May 27, 2012 and posted on Flickr: Wil Wheaton.) 

TV Quote of the Day (‘The Big Bang Theory,’ on ‘Anything-Can-Happen Thursday’)

[On “Anything-Can-Happen Thursday,” America’s favorite nerds crash a bar, in the hope of picking up women.]

Leonard Hofstadter [played by Johnny Galecki]: “Should we talk to some of these women?”

Howard Wolowitz [played by Simon Helberg]: “No, it's way too early in the night for that. See, first we let the lawyers and the jocks thin the herd, and then we go after the weak and the old and the lame.”

Leonard: “That's your system?”

Howard: “That's my system. Oh, and if you spot a chick with a Seeing Eye dog, she's mine.” — The Big Bang Theory, Season 2, Episode 20, “The Hofstadter Isotope,” original air date Apr.13, 2009, teleplay by David Goetsch, directed by Mark Cendrowski

TV Quote of the Day (‘The Big Bang Theory,’ With Howard on Ladies’ Night)

Howard Wolowitz (played by Simon Helberg): “If I may proffer a suggestion, in bars all across this great nation of ours, Thursday night is Ladies’ Night. Which means, as the evening progresses, we will get better looking courtesy of 99 cent margaritas and two-for-one Jell-O shots.”

Leonard Hofstadter (played by Johnny Galecki): “Come on, Howard, the odds of us picking up girls in a bar are practically zero.”

Howard: “Really? Are you familiar with the Drake Equation?”

Dr. Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons): “The one that estimates the odds of making contact with extraterrestrials by calculating the product of an increasingly restrictive series of fractional values such as those stars with planets, and those planets likely to develop life? N equals R times FP times NE times FL times FI times FC times L?”

Howard: “Yeah, that one. You can modify it to calculate our chances of having sex by changing the formula to use the number of single women in Los Angeles, the number of those who might find us attractive, and what I call the Wolowitz Coefficient.”

Raj Koothrappali (played by Kunal Nayyar): “The Wolowitz Coefficient?”

Howard: “Neediness times dress size squared. Crunching the numbers, I come up with a conservative 5,812 potential sex partners within a 40-mile radius.”

Leonard: “You’re joking.”

Howard: “I’m a horny engineer, Leonard. I never joke about math or sex.”—The Big Bang Theory, Series 2, Episode 20, “The Hofstadter Isotope,” original air date April 13, 2009, teleplay by David Goetsch, directed by Mark Cendrowski

TV Quote of the Day (Conan O’Brien, on the Teen Yahoo Millionaire)

“A 17-year-old boy sold an app to Yahoo! for $30 million. The boy says he’ll use the money to fund his new website, Who’s a Nerd Now, Jenny?.com.”—Late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien on Conan, quoted in “The Week’s Best Sound Bites,” Entertainment Weekly, April 12, 2013