I have been calling myself a geek for many years, but many of my acquaintances have probably thought of me as a nerd. All of the signs are here – I never played football or baseball, I have worn eyeglasses since I was in the 4th grade, I got good enough grades in high school to earn the titles of “Class Scholar” (actually there were two of us, one male and one female), and I was the class Salutatorian (the female class scholar was much smarter than I was and earned the Valedictorian title going away).
In some ways, I have always felt a little kinship with the basic idea behind the 1984 movie titled Revenge of the Nerds, but I have never been a big fan of silly slapstick and I have never managed to watch the entire movie. I think I saw a scene or two while on patrol – there were some truly awful movies playing the the wardrooms of the USS Stonewall Jackson and USS Von Steuben during the 1980s when I was an active submariner. I know several people who were real fans of the movie; it always made them laugh.
One more bit of background that you might want to have in order to share in my joy of discovery – I founded Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. in September 1993 and have been actively developing and promoting the concept of an Adams EngineTM for many years. That information will also allow you to understand that I am a bit sheepish about the fact that I did not know about this already.
Anyway, all that is by way of introduction to a discovery I made this morning. Apparently, this tee shirt logo played at least a minor role in Revenge of the Nerds. Not only have I never made that connection, but no one else has ever told me about it. (If you click on the logo, it will lead you to the site where you can buy a tee shirt. Here is a fantasy – one day I will walk into a room and there will be dozens of people wearing these shirts and laughing at/with me.)
One other thing that you might want to know about me – after all, this blog is partially a way to let people understand just a little bit more about the kind of minds that are working to develop atomic energy applications. That might be scary to some, but I hope that it reassures some others. Though I did not play basketball, baseball or football, I did think of myself as a bit of a jock – I was a swimmer and a lifeguard. On the tee shirt site, there is another version of the shirt that I probably would have worn back in high school if it had been available:
You would never catch me in a sleeveless shirt these days. Now you know just a bit more about me. I am a proud geek, a closet nerd, and perhaps a bit strange. I also do some of my least constrained thinking between 0200 and 0700 each day.
PS – I hope that founditemclothing.com does not mind me borrowing their tee shirt images and linking to the place where people can purchase those shirts. I will gladly take them down if there is an issue.
