Word: geek
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...last date with Beck Hansen, his smash album Odelay, was one of those classic affairs in which everything seemed to go perfectly. God knows we weren't expecting it. Last time we checked, he had been merely a folksy geek with the catchphrase of consummate apathy: "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill...
...Dalai Lama or Deepak Chopra or even Mark McGwire. This god is a geek who wears socks with his sandals. His name is Linus Torvalds. He's 28 years old, and his religion is called Linux, after a piece of computer code he wrote for kicks in 1991, while a student at the University of Helsinki, and then loosed upon the world...
...does it feel to be an idol? Torvalds shyly dips his head and averts his gaze. "It's not like I have 15-year-old girls throwing their underwear at me," he says, with a small laugh. "I think the 15-year-old geek inside me is still disappointed about that...
...most popular person at the party used to be the one flaunting the hottest stock tip. Pssst--zip drives. Ooh, baby! Not anymore. Today's darling is the geek in the corner explaining zero-coupon bonds. Zero what? You know, those tricky little devils that look like bonds and move like stocks and, um, are only up 25% this year after rising 22% last year. Ooh, baby! That's right. Just when you had given up on another year of 20%-plus investment gains (and having anything to gloat over), along comes a sharp decline in interest rates that...
...trademark bow tie (also gray, though with a few zany paisley figures). "Welcome to forum alfresco," he quips in a typical bit of Ivy League drollery. No one laughs. But Williams is being himself, and the crowd seems to appreciate it. Somehow, in fact, this Yale-talking geek has inspired a city desperate for inspiration...