Re: Pocket-protector crowd

Posted by R. Berg on June 13, 2005

In Reply to: Re: Pocket-protector crowd posted by ESC on June 12, 2005

: : : I found the following sentence in a recent news article in The Washington Post:
: : : "For Yamagata, it was just another night out with the pocket-protector crowd in Tokyo's neon-splashed Akasaka district....."
: : : I would like to know what "pocket-protector crowd" means.
: : : Thank you in advance.

: : On one extreme are the slaves to fashion: dressed to impress with the latest styles and colors, dazzling the crowd. On the other extreme are the pocket-protector crowd. That little plastic sleeve in his short-sleeve white shirt pocket, the one with pens and a mechanical pencil in it and a Hewlett-Packard logo on the front, signals two things simultaneously: he is blind and deaf to fashion which he would regard as foolish even if he were aware of it, and he is an earnest, practical, disciplined practiioner of some technological occupation. Riddle: How can you spot the extroverted engineer? He's the one looking at the other guy's shoes.

In one word: "nerd."