Charlie Pierce has a beautiful tribute to Leonard Nimoy
"...Leonard Nimoy, good son of Boston's lost West End, stopped by in Chicago, where I occasionally appear to crack wise on an NPR electric radio programme. As it happens, the host of said programme is as big a fan of what is now known as Star Trek TOS as I am, which resulted in a nerd-off of a segment that may well have broken NPR's very sturdy dorkometer within the first five minutes. Nimoy was gentle and kind and very, very funny. He fielded all the questions -- most of which he has to have heard at least nine zillion times -- with grace and wit.
It's extraordinarily hard to imagine American TV without Sarek and Amanda's kid who, like the current president of the United States, was the child of two worlds, in Spock's case, quite literally. (The series debuted in 1966, nine months before the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loving v. Virginia. The show always was ahead of its time.) Nimoy's creation of one of our indispensable television icons is a marvelous work-in-progress throughout the course of the series, and then through its subsequent movie and television iterations. Spock was the great gravitational force that held together all of the themes that Gene Roddenberry and his remarkable group of visionary writers wanted to run through their space opera. Spock faced bigotry. He faced his status as an outsider, even among a universe of people who were outsiders in one way or another. And when the script forced him to break character, Nimoy demonstrated that Spock's human-half was both witty and charming, and something of a ladies man. (Alien spores caused him to fall for Jill Ireland, and getting sent back in time sent him into the arms of Mariette Hartley, who apparently shopped at the same boutique that outfitted Raquel Welch in One Million B.C.) He jammed with space hippies, and sang (under telekinetic duress) love songs to Lieutenant Uhura and Nurse Chapel."
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a33393/rip-leonard-nimoy/
= new reply since forum marked as read
This is a sad loss.
He had good innings, but but ...I wish he'd had more of them.
What a lovely, graceful and intelligent man he was.
... on television, his was the most...human."
[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#339966; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"] Kirk eulogizing Spock [div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#ccffcc; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"] We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted, in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most.... [voice breaks] human.
...and I was surprised no one else beat me to it.
NG
First, to comment in all the Nimoy threads. Forgive me if I am brief. I am mostly speechless about his death.
Second, because DeForrest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy were clearly the top of the original cast, now both sadly gone.
RIP Mr. Spock.
[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#339966; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"] Ship…out of danger? [div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#ccffcc; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]
Kirk: Spock!
Spock: (climbs slowly to his feet and walks over to Kirk) Ship. . . out of danger?
Kirk: Yes.
Spock: Don't grieve, Admiral. It's logical. The needs of the many outweigh . . .
Kirk: -- the needs of the few . . .
Spock: -- or the one. I never took the Kobayashi Maru test, until now. What do you think of my solution? (He kneels.) I have been . . . and always shall be . . . your friend. (He places his hand on the chamber glass, and his voice is a whispered broken husk.) Live long and prosper!
Kirk: (places his hand against the glass as Spock slumps and dies) No. . . .
[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#339966; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"] Remember [div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#ccffcc; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]
"He's really not dead... as long as we remember him."
- McCoy on Spock,
There's a (defunct, but recently renovated as a museum at least) synagogue located on Phillips Street, one block from the former West End, and this synagogue houses a most fascinating sculpture:
(photo credit: Josh Kuchinsky)
I'm not saying it was aliens, but... OK, Lithuanian immigrants.