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Spock fans have raised enough to live long, now they hope to bring in enough so they can also prosper
By adamg on Thu, 03/02/2023 - 10:12am
Rendering via Museum of Science.
The Boston Sun reports backers of a proposed Leonard Nimoy memorial at the Museum of Science have raised more than half the $500,000 they need for a 20-foot-tall steel hand doing the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" sign.
The hand would be illuminated from within.
The symbol has Boston roots just like Nimoy himself. It comes from a hand symbol synagogue leaders would do during services to represent the Hebrew letter shin, as the light of God came into the service, a powerful light that could hurt your eyes, so congregants were told to shield their eyes, but during one service as he was growing up in the West End, a young Nimoy peeked.
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Comments
Imagine how it would look
on the Common, right under The Embrace.
Gesture like Spock’s, glove like Mork’s
Didn’t Robin Williams’ Mork character have a similar gesture (which turned into a handshake)? We all know that Nimitz has roots in the area—right across the bridge. But that rendering looks like Mork’s glittery glove. Maybe if they need to raise more $ they can appeal to Mork fans. Or not.
Also, why the hell do I remember this stuff from multiple dogs ages ago?
Live Long and Nanu Nanu my friend
n/t
spocks glove!
Should have been used by Bill Buckner.
Love Spock, the West End, Boston's mostly lost Jewish traditions
but $500k could generate a lot more mitzvah for the moolah. How about a smaller statue of the whole man giving the blessing and use the rest for a fund to subsidize field trips to the museum.
Contractor conversation
Contractor: The statue will cost $10 million.
MOS: What can we get for $500k?
Contractor: For that?!? All you get is a hand.
Indirect memorialization of 19th Century Boston Jews
I've read the theory that Leonard came up with the hand sign because it is based on rabbinical and in the past priestly blessing. That adds to the beauty already present in the greeting and wish that Spock would speak while making the sign.
I can also see that being a target for the anti-Jewish bigots in the Boston area.
Here is a science fiction with comedy solution. An anti-Jewish bigot walks by the hand sign. Sensors perceive the person's bigotry. The person is then transported to sit on a gigantic menorah of the sort that Mel Brooks used in History of the World. The menorah is then dunked for a moment which washes away the person's bigotry.
It's in the last link
It's not a theory about its origin, the "Nimoy peeked" link has the story from Nimoy himself.
After all...
He did grow up a few blocks away from there...
beat me to it
You totally caught this ! Some will know what this means, but for others the quote was spoken inside the MoS at least several times a day.....but where specifically?
Have a friend who is a long time Trekkie
Years ago he convinced me to go to a Star Trek convention here with him. I liked the show and I think he was trying to get me closer to his level of obsession. Nimoy was the keynote guest and speaker. He talked a lot about growing up in the West End and how his formative years here shaped him and his career. I'm glad I went as it was very interesting to hear and he seemed like a very genuine and kind person.
Same friend dragged me to another one with Nichelle Nichols that I'm equally glad I went to, even if my Star Trek fandom never grew to my friend's heights.
Hynes Auditorium
Were you at the convention that was at the Hynes many years ago that was actually on the Saturday of the pride parade in June? My God, what a Mel Brooks comedy. Drag queens drooling over Klingons… Priceless!
Why the Museum of Science?
Science fiction is not science. This statue does not memorialize Leonard Nimoy, but Dr. Spock, a fictional alien he played in a decidedly unscientific TV show. I don't want to spoil the fun, but doesn't Science ever get to be the fun, without Science Fiction (no relation) horning in?
West End
Partly because it is near the late remnants of the West End.
Sigh
{comicbook guy voice}
That’s Mister Spock, not doctor!
{/comicbook guy voice}
I made that mistake as a public service
just to give comicbook guy a reason to live.
no different than Nemo at the Aquarium gift shop
sci fi, cartoons (or whatever passes for them these days), Saturday morning animal shows, all may pique the interest of kids and adult civilians in learning the real science.
Unscientific show?
One of the notable qualities of TOS is that much of the technology was theoretically possible. The idea of exploration that was always at the heart of TOS and it's many offshoots is fundamentally scientific in the sense of exploring and discovering what is not known but somehow, somewhere exists in the measurable, tangible world. Much of the technology that is used was theoretically possible even in the 1960s. Communicators being one of the most prominent.
As for science fiction taking the fun out of doing science that does not compute. How does a literary genre remove the fun of experimentation, discovery and learning about the natural world?
Nonsense
I don't know what TOS is, but most of the gee-whiz technology in Star Trek is nonsense. Faster-than-light interstellar travel, teleportation, etc. Calling a slightly streamlined version of a walkie-talkie a Communicator does not demonstrate remarkable foresight. Communicators that can communicate without a speed-of-light lag were not theoretically possible in the 1960s, and are not theoretically possible now.
However, this is beside the point. Technology is not science, though it depends on it. Science is investigation of how the world works, of understanding its underlying principles. There is no science in Star Trek, and much anti-science. When what we actually know about the universe gets in the way of plot development, it is immediately discarded.
Science fiction at a science museum can take the fun out of science in the same way that a spontaneous circus act, with elephants, breaking out at your local cinema, can ruin the movie. There's nothing wrong with the circus act, it might be quite entertaining, but it does get in the way.
TOS stand for The Original
TOS stand for The Original Series; That being the version of Star Trek that ran from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969.
Another invention that debuted on the show was the medical tricorder, a device that could gauge you health without touching your body much like the No-Touch Digital Infrared Thermometers used today in hospitals. Star Trek being a science fiction show added in a lot more functions to the medical tricorder. Those other functions are being worked on today. So I hope you can see why TOS is considered an inspiration to scientists today.
Do you find Leonard Nimoy's introduction to the IMAX films shown at the Mugar Omni Theater at the Museum of Science distracting?
https://youtu.be/MHK2-BVfUzs?t=65
Not science?
Except when it is. For example, that thing you used to write your comment on -- that was science fiction, and not so long ago. As for Star Trek, the show has been named as an inspiration by countless scientists and astronauts. There are sci-fi shows that are largely devoid of science, but Star Trek wasn't one of them.
If this was star wars, you
If this was star wars, you might have an argument, but Trek in particular is huuuugely responsible for sparking a love of science, of progress, of possibility in thousands of now-scientists. Walk into NASA and ask anybody there what inspired them - there's a pretty high chance they will say it was Star Trek.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/tech-leaders-share-how-star-trek-in...
Considering the double whammy of how Trek has influenced modern science AND how Nimoy is a son of Boston, I think it's entirely appropriate. It would be great if the Museum could do a special display when the statue opens, to promote - science of science fiction or something.
Personally
I'd rather see it somewhere with more visitors, like City Hall Plaza. Also near the West End where Nimoy grew up and also created by the same 1960s urban renewal which demolished the West End.
But
Who put the bop
in the bop
shu bop
?
i'll allow it.
i'll allow it.