Three cheers for Daniel Radcliffe, geek
<p>When the photographer from <cite>People</cite> magazine showed up to do a spread on me in 1996 (yes, 1996 &#8211; pre-open-source, it&#8217;s from my first 15 minutes of fame as a lexicographer), he taught me a useful term &#8211; &#8220;face people&#8221;.  Face people are people who are famous for being famous, the vacant icons of celebrity narcissism who throng the pages of magazines like, well, <cite>People</cite>.  The photographer observed that he found dealing with someone who is not a face person refreshing.</p>
<p>In a similar way, I always find it heartening when I discover someone who by position ought to be a mere face person but is in fact one of us.  And by &#8216;us&#8217;, I mean a geek.  Er.  Reads science fiction, likes computers, enjoys challenging games, is generally into bright-person stuff. This is especially nice on the rare occasions when the putative face person has made a show-biz reputation <em>acting</em> like a bright geeky sort.</p>
<p>And today I learned that Daniel Radcliffe, the kid who played Harry Potter, went on British TV, described Tom Lehrer as the cleverest and funniest man of the 20th century and his hero, and then sang <cite>The Elements</cite>.  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs&#038;feature=player_embedded">Badly, but with feeling.</a>.</p>
<p>Now I&#8217;m not going to say that I <em>know</em> Radcliffe has the whole constellation of geek traits.  But after seeing that YouTube clip, I know which way to bet.</p>
