Today is a twofer: Memorial Day and Geek Pride Day. Geek day originated 14 years ago when Spanish blogger Germán Martínez wanted to celebrate geekness and pull together a community, so he chose the anniversary of the first Star Wars release as the date. About 300 geeks turned out in Madrid that day to play human Pac-Man, and a geeks’ bill of rights was written. The manifesto included “the right not to like football or any other sport” and “the right not to be ‘in style.’”
If you need a boost today, watch a cult classic; dust off an arcane video game; play too many Chess.com games; overuse semicolons; or help me solve a grammatical puzzle: Is “global pandemic” redundant? “Pan-” means all. The Associated Press says it’s redundant, but Merriam-Webster says it’s not, defining pandemic as “occurring over a wide geographic area,” not necessarily the world, so “global” enlarges it. Weigh in at recharge@motherjones.com. Bonus points if you know what a pleonasm is.
Recharge returns tomorrow with surprisingly good news for the week ahead.
