I went to a Star Trek convention in Baltimore this weekend, with Andrew and the friend who went with us to the Vegas convention last year. It was great fun and a lot less tiring that the four-day marathon that was Vegas. The highlight for me was Nichelle Nichols (whom you may know as Lieutenant Uhura): she told lots of stories evoking the era when starlets would jetset around Europe, as well as explaining the work she did to encourage NASA to add gender and racial diversity to their astronaut pool. (When they originally asked for her help, they said it would be best if she could find an African-American woman, because then they could check off all the diversity boxes at once.)
Now, laugh as you may about Star Trek conventions, one thing that is really cool about them is the variety of people you see there. I'm not just talking about seeing grandmas, or people with different colored skin. I'm talking about people who don't know what hairstyle has been in fashion ever. People who were several standard deviations away from even the geeks in high school - these were the people who sat alone at lunch. But at Star Trek conventions we're all friends. We all share a passion for this crazy thing, and we're all having a blast. And that's pretty cool.
4 comments:
hahaha, you do make it sound intriguing. But I fear I'd not be able to enjoy it as much as you. If you don't have the passion for the show, it's like not speaking the language. You won't fully be able to integrate.
I went to a star trek convention once when I was 13. It was memorable.
The StarTrek fever has never left the senior part of the clan. At The Podolny Group we like to think in many versions of the Star Trek universe.
For our overall financial model - Ferngi of course
For our management model - Borg (can't have all my associates being tooo independent). I even refer to one associate as 3 of 6
And for dealing with our clients we are the Klingon Consultants. "So you stupid ptach, what is it about key performance indicators you don't understand (consultant whacks client across the head)
on another TV series called ER, the director of the ER was a handicapped lesbian who was adopted as a child and who was involved with a Latina firefighter. So though she was white, her girlfriend was not.
How many boxes can NASA click off with that one?
Sad as it may seem, even by some of today's standards, it is still pushes some social boundaries.
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