Edward Gorey meets Star Trek

There's not a lot more to say. Check it out.

Edward Gorey meets Star Trek

The theme to Star Trek

A lot of geeks can tell you that the theme to Star Trek was written by Alexander "Sandy" Courage, who was the composer of a truly incredible number of other themes and soundtracks. This YouTube clip is an interview with him about how the theme came to be and also how the "psssssssssshewwwww!" sounds of the ships zipping by were made.

The theme to Star Trek

George Takei is so cool!

As I've said earlier, I really like George Takei. I always have. I now have one more reason to like him.

Tim Hardaway, basketball star, made a public rant about hating gay people. (He retracted it pretty quickly, but the NBA has sanctioned him even so.... and good.) But George Takei made a great public service announcement about this on Jimmy Kimmel's show. It's all over YouTube - just search for "George Takei Hardaway" or "George Takei PSA" - but you can try clicking here or here for a copy of the clip. George's response is a classic for making a point without getting angry. I love the way he laughs, too.

George Takei is so cool!

George Takei out of the closet

I logged on to AOL this evening only to see in the news that George Takei has come out. I can't honestly say that I ever thought about it one way or t'other, but I guess it doesn't really surprise me in retrospect.

Years ago, my ex was producing Star Trek conventions, an interesting and frequently bizarre occupation. I had the pleasure of seeing George frequently. He was always accommodating and easy to deal with. George had (and still has, as far as I know) a reputation for being polite, calm, and extraordinarily gracious even under trying circumstances. Perhaps the most amazing tribute is that George has never been rude to a fan, which elevates him to "patience of a saint" level by definition. :)

George is a thoughtful, urbane man who is an exceptional conversationalist and a pleasure to be around. My favorite memory of George is when my ex was putting on a Star Trek convention at the Anaheim Convention Center. I didn't have anything to do on Saturday evening after the con closed for the day, so I went to the hotel's sauna to relax and try and get the Anaheim smog out of my lungs. The sauna was already occupied by George, his nephew (who he'd brought with him to the convention), a couple of the vendors from the con, and a random hotel guest. We sat in the sauna, sweated, and talked LA politics--George was in the middle of a (sadly unsuccessful) run for LA City Council. I'm sad he didn't make it; George would have made an exceptional public servant.

I am pleased that George feels good enough to come out and that he's been in a solid relationship for 18 years. He's a wonderful man, a talented actor, and a pleasure to know.

George Takei out of the closet

Old thought about Star Trek: The Next Generation

Okay, this is something I've always wondered about. If you recall your STNG, particularly the later seasons, you'd periodically see a bunch of people sitting and playing poker: Worf, LaForge, Data, Troi, and Riker. Now, here's the deal:

• Worf, being a Klingon, is a master of strategy and could bluff and feint with the best of them. Nobody would be able to fake him out at a poker table.
• LaForge has that vision widget that (as was established early on in the series) lets him see all sorts of things not normally visible to the unaided human eye, including microscopic temperature changes in and around human skin. He can actually see the changes in perspiration and skin temperature in another person, making him a human polygraph.
• Data doesn't just count cards, he can calculate odds for absolutely anything. Even more, with his total recall, he could analyze patterns of play for each player based on all their past games and even come up with percentages in different situations.
• Troi (the perennial cutie) senses everyone's emotions around her. If someone's feeling anything about the hand they're playing, good or bad, she'll know it right away and be able to bet accordingly.

With all this going for these four, you'd think that no-one would stand a chance of beating any one of them and, at a table with all four, anyone without an edge of their own would get skinned alive and the only discussion left would be which of the four would get the lion's share of the proceeds.

So I always wondered why it was that, faced with all this skill, that Riker was always the big winner. Imagine that: a man with no special skills, no gadgets, and no significant training except for that which he got in Starfleet OCS to become their ranking officer, always took the table every time. It seemed to me that his loyal troops would be sitting there and going "Gawrshk, Mr. Riker, hyuk hyuk hyuk, how dew you do that so orf'n?!?!!?"

Old thought about Star Trek: The Next Generation