I’ve been involved in some fairly nerdish endeavors. I mean, I was never an A/V club kid, chess club member or band geek, but when you enjoy intellectual stimulation, you tend to find yourself around the less-beautiful, less hygenically-occupied people from time to time. Which is fine; I’m as at home amid a group of overweight and overripe wargamers as I am in velvet-roped VIP area in a haughty nightclub.
A few weeks ago, I made a comment that I am one of the coolest columnists around, and some of you seemed to think that this was bragging. But you see, I was actually making a rather cutting reference to the occupation, as the following quote from Jay Nordlinger, who apparently is not actually 80 years old, deaf, dumb and blind*, would seem to prove:
That little symbol [Michael] Moore made with his hand, at the convention on Monday night? I read that it was “L” for “loser.” I really couldn’t figure it out — it reminded me of that symbol that Filipinos made, all those years ago, in support of Cory Aquino.
Okay, the L-sign went mainstream in the chick flick Jerry Maguire, which was filmed around the time John Kerry was throwing away medals that may or may not have belonged to him, if I recall correctly. I’ve worked with programmers and artists, I’ve spent years in the game development industry, and I can now state, with some assurance, that in the columnists of America we have found the Kings of Nerd.
*Jay’s actually one of my favorites at NRO; his total disinterest in pop culture is quite healthy, in my opinion.