3. He Invented The Vulcan Salute
The religious elements of Leonard Nimoy's Orthodox Jewish childhood proved useful when he landed the part of Spock. Realizing that the character could benefit from some sort of defining gesture, he came up with the transcendent brilliance of the Vulcan salute. Nimoy based the salute on the kohanic blessing, forming his fingers roughly into the shape of the Hebrew letter "shin" - the letter used as one of the Hebrew names for God. With this display of deep creativity, Nimoy showed that he was willing to put careful thought into something even as mundane as a gesture. And that careful thought paid off - he created the single most recognizable gesture in sci-fi history.
Mike Morgan
Contributor
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
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