Nerd Girl’s Ode to NPR April 13, 2008

It’s strange that right about when you learn to embrace your nerdy side, weird habits and all, you start realizing you’re not so weird after all.  Some people are able to passionately enjoy fringe artists, bands, books, and clothes, etc, and then by doing so become so different that they cross over to cool.  I was not one of those priveleged nerds who by my weird status somewhat altered into the realm of “trend-starter”. I liked weird things, and by me liking them I never started a trend or a loyal group of followers.   I didn’t realize that it was usually only the passionate enthusiasm that most people followed, not the actual trend itself. If someone could voice an opinion excitedly enough or back up a band with enough head-banging enthrallment, then surely this band or this thing must be worth following.  When I was younger, I was  enraptured by anyone who didn’t care about peer’s reactions or opinions.  I tried desperately hard for a while to fit in.  I think most of us did, but somehow we thought the cool kids didn’t have to try.  You know those cool kids like Paulie Bleeker:

Juno MacGuff: I think I’m, like, in love with you.
Paulie Bleeker: You mean as friends?
Juno MacGuff: No, I mean, like, for real. ‘Cause you’re, like, the coolest person I’ve ever met, and you don’t even have to try, you know…
Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually.

And if you hadn’t noticed, all things nerdy are making a come-back.  But how do the true nerds feel about the “cool kids” taking over the realm of dorkdom?  Here’s an excerpt from a pretty funny blog post:

My fellow nerds, certain members of society are debasing those of our kind. You see them everywhere you go: they wear shirts that depict the heroes of our culture and act as if they are like one of us. They know nothing about the discrimination our forefathers endured, or the hardships they overcame. These fakers have appropriated our culture because it’s cool, never knowing what it truly means to be a nerd.

You see, for the last half-decade, video gaming and nerd-dom in general has become cooler and cooler. Bands of pretty boys sing about Dungeons and Dragons. Guys with thick-rimmed glasses are suddenly hot. Hell, being a skinny weakling whose likes include Mario Kart and twenty-sided dice is even considered cool. Although the fact that nerds like myself are suddenly hot commodities on the man-meat market doesn’t terribly upset me, the way others have appropriated and abused my nerd-culture is outrageous.

The fact that I’m 26 and still care about being cool sometimes is terribly upsetting. I thought the glory of growing older was not caring any more.  The good things is, I am starting to care less, so I can actually admit: I like Billy Joel rather than Fergie or Timbaland or Fall Out Boy, I could spend an entire weekend organizing my books on the bookshelf, and most importantly: I really enjoy NPR.  I do not find many people to discuss my love of NPR with, unless I visit my grandma.  I’m sure there must be people in my generation also enjoying the dry humor of Michael Feldman or hoping that you too can win Carl Kassell’s voice on your home answering machine.  Am I really the only one out there waiting for the lunch hour so I can listen to Terry Gross?

The saga of me and NPR was a quiet flirtation that led to full-blown romance.  We met by accident, after a rude awakening from another suitor radio station.  I grew tired of said radio frequency showing up time and time again with the same songs, like a boyfriend who only knows how to romance you with chocolates and flowers.  Delicacies and nice smelling things are sweet for a while, but they get tiresome (and fattening).  I started looking elsewhere for someone to take his place, someone that could carry an intelligent conversation, someone that shared my own interests, someone who could give me an oddly informative news quiz .  I live in Indianapolis, so the choices for beaus on the radio dial are few and for someone who does not own an i-pod.

NPR and I met about a year ago, and we’ve been together ever since. Sure I have the occassional fling with Bob & Tom on the side, and dabble a little with WZPL, but NPR is my faithful and true.  He gives me the local news I want to know, without having to endure increasingly dramatic nightly newscasts (“How much snow can we expect for the following weekend? We’ll tell you right after this commercial!”  I HATE how they tease out the news like that!). NPR knows I’ll get fat on chocolate all the time, so sometimes he brings me entertaining, sweet items about movies and popular culture, but then brings home some meat with the growing concern over the one-child policy in China.  He woos me with classical music in the evening, tells a good story with This American Life, and he even helped me fix my automobile this weekend with Car Talk.

Me and NPR organize my bookshelf with glee over the weekend, and laugh over the differences between mute and moot.  We will probably never be the cool kids on the block.  We will probably have our lunch money stolen and our head dunked in a toilet from time to time, but we would be able to explain to you the best way to invest that stolen coinage and maybe even a little bit about how that toilet works, because after all, All Things are Considered.

My name is Molly; I am a nerd and I love NPR.