History Of Mr. Spock's Vulcan Greeting on Star Trek
Posted: Monday, September 29, 2008
by Dan Bimrose
Liberal Fix
If you are familiar with popular culture at all you are familiar with Star Trek. If you are familiar with Star Trek I am sure you know all about Mr. Spock as played by Leonard Nimoy. If you know Spock you know about his Vulcan hand gesture or greeting.
If you hold your right hand up facing the person you are greeting and spread your fingers at the middle finger and the ring finger you will be officially greeting people Vulcan style.
For people who can perform this greeting it says very little about you. For people who can perform this greeting and actually do perform this greeting on a regular basis it says a great deal about you.
We can assume that at one point of your life you have received a swirly. You probably spend too much time watching television. More than likely you do not date much and the last girl you were with was on your computer. We all assume that Trekkies are at least somewhat intelligent or at the bare minimum can play a computer like a drum.
How many of you know the origins of the greeting? Actually probably a larger percentage of Trekkies know this answer than I care to think about.
The actual idea can be attributed to Leonard Nimoy. This gesture was actually used a few thousand years ago. Long before television, Star Trek, Atari game systems and only shortly after John McCain was born.
It is based on the Hebrew letter "chim" and was used by Hebrew priests as a special sign during religious ceremonies.
In my defense I happened on this little tidbit in doing some research for a manuscript. I found it mildly interesting so I decided to share it with you.
There you have it. "Live long and prosper."
Dan Bimrose is the creator of coffeeandprozac.com which features daily Opinions, Editorials, and Stories and the website tuesdaysreleases.com which is devoted to recently released DVD movies.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Hi Dan.Well now, I can make the sign with both my hands and I loved the first Star Trek, but never considered myself a Trekkie. I don't (and didn't) watch all that much TV.Actually, it was an exercise that my first piano teacher had me do. First you separate your fingers between the middle and ring as in the Vulcan sign (oh, by the way, it was Mr. Spock, not Dr. Spock...he was a pediatrician) and then you put the middle and ring fingers together while moving the index and little fingers away from them. You do this over and over and faster and faster. I was making that sign before Star Trek ever hit the airwaves.But hey, what's a "swirly?"DiannePlease log in to respond to this comment.My apologies, Dianne. I have changed it to Mr. Spock. I think I just committed blasphemy.
A swirly is when someone places your head in a toilet and flushes it.
By the way. My apologies to any fervent Trekkies. I hope you can take this article in good humor.
If it makes you feel any better I have a Fonzie poster that I refuse to get rid of.Please log in to respond to this comment.Hi Dan.I get a little defensive from time to time, but I didn't really think that you were being mean. Yeah, Happy Days was great and the Fonz was cool.Have a great day,DiannePlease log in to respond to this comment.
Hi Dan,For me, it was easy to learn the Spock sign. I sprained my pinky finger in a high school PE class and the school nurse taped it to my ring finger. So, since I couldn't type in typing class...well, you get the idea. With one of my hands I could meet any trekkie at a convention and be accepted as a Vulcan!Thanks for a fun article!Please log in to respond to this comment.
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