R.

[cosmolinguist]

Andrew and I talk about the best things on tram rides home. Last time it was Buckminster Fuller.

I don't remember why, or what exactly we were talking about. I only remember that one of us said something about his name and how silly it sounds. Especially Buckminster. Buckminster! "And that's his middle name!"

That made me laugh. "Imagine what the R could be, if Buckminster's better than that!"

Andrew smiled. I wans't looking at him, but I know he did; I could hear it.

Then a lovely idea came into my head. "I bet the R stands for robot!"

That made Andrew laugh (laughing is just a more audible smile).

So I got all earnest and defensive, because that makes these things funnier. Slightly. Sometimes. "He has a weird name, and everything!" I said. (They all had weird names.)

It also made him call me a geek. Which, I protested, was not fair. Not that I mind geeks, certainly. I love geeks, and I know quite a few of them. But that's the thing--I know them, and I don't think it's nice to lump me in the same category. I've never touched a role-playing game. I don't know Japanese. I enjoy sunshine! I don't evn rant about operating systems ... any more.

But he insisted that anyone with the knowledge required to say what I'd just said had to be a geek.

I considered this.

C'mon. Can it be that rare to know about R. Daneel Olivaw? Or to know about Buckminster Fuller (at least enough to know that his first name starts with R--which is really about the only thing I know about him)?

Once you've got that, connecting the two is easy! Obviously.

Comments

[kmusser]

I have to agree with Andrew on this one. Remembering the name of any Asimov character immediately qualifies you as a geek.

[cosmolinguist]

But I know lots of people who know that! I think. I wanted to do an accompanying poll about this, but alas I cannot get a paid account at the moment.

[kmusser]

Well you just said you know lots of geeks *grin*

[cosmolinguist]

And thus such things are not so noteworthy, I'd think.

[kmusser]

Probably not. I consider almost all my friends geeks and would not normally comment on it. Sometimes though you can do something that reinforces your geekiness and that may deserve comment, especially if you don't normally put your geekiness on display :-)

[cosmolinguist]

Oh yes; I took it as a compliment.

[classytart.livejournal.com]

I had never heard eiher name before.

But (from a comment above) that's probably because I don't really do Sci-Fi.

[cosmolinguist]

Bucky Fuller isn't a character in science fiction stories, as the robot is. He's just (from what I can tell) a really cool and interesting person, called a visionary, designer, architect, and inventor by Wikipedia. (That article also tells me that his first name was Richard, which is about as normal as I was beginning to suspect (though my guess was Robert).)

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Ah! I had heard of him! Geodesic domes!

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, I thought about just saying "Geodesic domes!" but he's done so much other weird stuff too that I thought it'd be nice to offer a representative sample.

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

aluminuminuminuminum!

[sablin1975.livejournal.com]

I will be studying Japanese from September 19th,so presumably from that date I will become a geek.

[cosmolinguist]

Geeks is good.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about Buckminster Fuller at all, but I have to respect the fact that there is a substance called buckminsterfullerene!

[cosmolinguist]

I agree; I think I had heard of that, long ago in my chemistry class, and I was similarly impressed. It's probably the only reason I recognized his name (though I know I have seen that stamp and thus I more-or-less got the "Geodesic domes!" thing too).

On an unrelated note, that icon is great. And it's nice to see you back in LJ-land again (even if your absence was only noticeable to me because I haven't written anything you care to comment upon :-)).