Bye, Scotty...

Per AP:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures who responded to the apocryphal command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday. He was 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.

I grew up with the original "Star Trek" and it was my introduction into Geek-dom...followed quickly by Isaac Asimov, Ursula LeGuinn, Star Wars, marching band, etc...

Being Scottish myself, I was always especially fond of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (even though he was really a Canadian and he freaked me out the first time I heard him giving an interview).

I regularly quote Scotty phrases in my everyday vocabulary: "I've got to have thirty minutes!" and...of course..."I can't do it, Captain, I can't get the powa!" (and variations on that theme)

It's always sad to wave goodbye to another part of childhood.