I was robbed!

How is it that jar hasn't been stolen?

I think talking about yourself in the third person automatically DQ's you. :)

Seriously... do you know how to use ALL the lines of a slide rule?

I used to use a slide rule, and I only used a couple of its scales. Though my slide rules were so cheap (bought at the convenience store next to the high school) that they did not have a case, so I put them in my math book as a bookmark... only to have the slide fall out in the hallway.

In my senior year of high school my dad promised to get me a really cool circular slide rule from Edmund's Scientific. Unfortunately for Christmas I ended up with a 5 function calculator (the fifth function was a square root). I spent the last half of that year and my first year of college with that calculator and the CRC book of math tables (at least I knew how to use "mantissas").

In my sophemore year of college I got an HP-45... which should be about your freshman year of high school.

You young whipper-snapper!

I think it was that stick with the lines and numbers on it. I was rooting for you, though.

I think Orac should get additional points based on the fact that his mother is also a nerd. Who do you think supplied a goodly number of the nerdy memorabilia?

I loved my slide rule so much that I donated it to my HS's collection of memorabilia. However, that does not make one a nerd all by itself. Nerdiness has got to be a way of life. While you may have all the materialistic trappings of nerdiness, you lack the item-du-rigeur of being a nerd.

You do not have a plastic pocket protector in your shirt pocket. Without that, you may as well be a certified member of the "in-crowd".

Do not scoff at this. I went to a HS where every student had some degree of nerdiness. However, the biggest nerd was a fellow whose initials were (note the tense) TG. If you went through our yearbook to look for the ultimate nerd, you would pick him out. Everyone who has been challenged with that does.

It's okay, Orac. If you are actually disappointed when people don't call you the biggest nerd they know, then your nerd credentials are secure.

I think wanting to compete as a nerd, caring about the results, and especially complaining about the results either individually or together disqualify you from true nerddom.

You were up against some unbelievably stiff competition. I mean, really. Anyone who can stomach all of the Silmarillion twice, let alone 5 times, is not someone you want to try to out-nerd.

I've read the Silmarillion -- well, I'm not sure how many times. I've lost count. This is partly because I usually don't read it all in one go, and I read some parts more frequently than others. I love the Ainulindale part in particular. At least four cover-to-cover readings, plus numerous "oh, I want to read that bit again" readings.

To Orac, I understand from your last post on the subject that you're planning to *ahem* obtain Torchwood over the Internet. Be advised there's more geekiness in store for you: the BBC has greenlit the Sarah Jane Adventures. ;-) It's not yet filmed, so you have a while to wait (alas).

Orac should have received super ultra extra points for the fact that his not-quite-as-nerdy-as-he sister went to great lengths to find said Dalek cookie jar for Queen Mother-Nerd to purchase for him for X-mas. She herself bought him that super-cool Darth Vader helmet with the voice changer he mentioned. She had to pry it away from her fledgling nerd-husband's greedy hands.

As for the Silmarillion; if I recall correctly, Orac has a first edition. He pre-ordered it from our local Little Professor bookstore. Same as he did for all the Thomas Covenant books. Now that's a nerd!

I demand a recount.