Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Roger Clark IS the Gorton's Fisherman
Remember when you were in elementary school and there was that one kid who was just born to be a nerd? This kid was usually a boy and always looked like he and his knapsack had gotten into a fierce tornado on the way to school. The shirt was buttoned wrong, the Trapper Keeper (with a space age theme) had exploded, the sneakers were always untied, and the nose was unfailingly being picked. Sports, even kickball, were not this kid's forte and his interests usually involved video games (formerly a nerds-only pursuit), comic books, Star Trek, paintball, and big-breasted girls - just as long as they were animated. There is some justice in the world and oftentimes the nerds come out on top: Bill Gates for example, Stephen Spielberg, the kid in the Wonder Years. And then there are the perma-nerds like our beloved Roger Clark who fall somewhere in the middle: touched gently by fame, but without the big bucks to hire someone to button their shirts correctly.
This morning Roger was at a research lab at Brooklyn College reporting on the College's work creating sustainable fisheries. Clark was wearing a striped polo (new?) and a tiny yellow raincoat that it appeared he had either slept in or put on in a hurry since half of it was hanging off his shoulder. Picture a kid who just arrived late to school and had to throw down his bookbag in a hurry to get to homeroom and I'll show you Roger Clark.
The researcher that Clark interviewed, a doctor someone, was older, very tan, and wearing enough rings to make Liberace jealous. Roger referred to him as the "Fish Head." Before reaching into a tank to net out an gigantic halibut, the good doctor cracked a joke that, because it wasn't funny, has not stuck in my fish head. Clark thought it was hilarious and commented that this was a guy who had clearly spent time in the Catskills. Clearly. Roger looked pretty grossed out by the squirming beast and eventually he threw back to Pat Kiernan at the home desk with the comment, "I thought I made the cheesiest jokes" with the implication that Dr. Old Man River was even cheesier than he. Pat was barely audible at that point and Roger, knowing things were about to get painfully awkward, shifted in his rumpled raincoat and dropped his head to his chest - like a rock star at the end of a ballad or a loveable nerd just staring at his shoe.
This morning Roger was at a research lab at Brooklyn College reporting on the College's work creating sustainable fisheries. Clark was wearing a striped polo (new?) and a tiny yellow raincoat that it appeared he had either slept in or put on in a hurry since half of it was hanging off his shoulder. Picture a kid who just arrived late to school and had to throw down his bookbag in a hurry to get to homeroom and I'll show you Roger Clark.
The researcher that Clark interviewed, a doctor someone, was older, very tan, and wearing enough rings to make Liberace jealous. Roger referred to him as the "Fish Head." Before reaching into a tank to net out an gigantic halibut, the good doctor cracked a joke that, because it wasn't funny, has not stuck in my fish head. Clark thought it was hilarious and commented that this was a guy who had clearly spent time in the Catskills. Clearly. Roger looked pretty grossed out by the squirming beast and eventually he threw back to Pat Kiernan at the home desk with the comment, "I thought I made the cheesiest jokes" with the implication that Dr. Old Man River was even cheesier than he. Pat was barely audible at that point and Roger, knowing things were about to get painfully awkward, shifted in his rumpled raincoat and dropped his head to his chest - like a rock star at the end of a ballad or a loveable nerd just staring at his shoe.
# posted by Unknown @ 10:48 AM 
