a sad day for science geeks

I read last night that Don Herbert, who was known to generations of protogeeks as Mr. Wizard, passed away yesterday. He was nearly 90 years old.

I remember watching Mr. Wizard's World, You Can't Do That On Television and The Third Eye on Nickelodeon when my parents first got cable television, and I was so excited that there were three shows that appealed to the three strongest (at the time) aspects of my personality.

But learning about science though experiments that seemed kind of dangerous was my favorite. I loved Mr. Wizard's World so much, I even made an effort to understand their funny accents and mysterious metric system, so I knew what the kid was talking about when he said, "Um, aboot four meters?"

Mr. Wizard was the original Bill Nye The Science Guy, and Mr. Wizard's World was the original Beakman's World, so if you damn kids today have no idea who I'm talking about, at least you know what I'm talking about. Now get off my lawn.

Update: Reader rasa nails it: "He was the Mr. Rogers for us geeks, that's for sure. A sad day indeed."