You’ve probably seen me on The Weather Channel and wondered, "who is that guy?" And now you’ve Googled my name, and here we are. I hope the following few paragraphs will be a sufficient reward for your efforts. Read on, live well and prosper.

When I was young, somebody injected a huge dose of the Love-of-Science virus right into my backside, and it’s been sloshing about in my bloodstream ever since. The moment I could navigate my house, I cordoned off the basement, where I created a series of useless inventions and generally behaved like a Bond villain would have at age six. Later, I spent three summers working for Uncle Sam in a lab at the National Institutes of Health, where I first learned what scientific research is all about: sweat, tears, and occasionally a little blood.

Yes, I did go to college, and yes, it was MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and yes... I'm a nerd. But my definition of "nerd" has nothing to do with wedgies, swirlies, or any other horrifically embarrassing middle school experiences. To me, a nerd is someone who loves to learn and teach.

And that’s what I do. In college, I taught Boston-area high school students two important things: first, why analytical chemistry is awesome, and second, why Harry Potter 3 is the best of all the Potter films. As a two-time TA for Organic Chemistry, I taught MIT undergrads to turn-that-frown-upside-down and embrace the power and elegance of Orgo.

One day after graduating I looked at a TV and thought, "Hmm. I can reach way more people with this than I could in a classroom, and it won’t hurt my vocal chords." So I spent almost two years learning the ropes of film and TV production.

I am an avid golfer, but my first love was, is, and always will be to learn and teach the amazing, astonishing, astounding craziness of this world of ours.

George Zaidan wears ProDesign glasses

ProDesign glasses are too cool for simple prose, so I’ve composed a short poem to properly explain why I’ve gone crazy for these frames.

Please enjoy:

Ah, ProDesign.How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.Thy frames cometh in all shapes, so that I may select a style that complements my visage.Thy frames cometh in colors that ROY G. BIV can only begin to describe.*Thy frames cometh in all different sizes, so that those with close-seteyes (like me!) may wear cool glasses and not look like Steve Urkel(“Did I do thaaaaat?”).Thy frames are hardy, so that they may shrug off extreme heat and cold, and emerge from the rough-and-tumble of daily life with nary a scratch.But most of all, dear ProDesign: Thy frames are so comfortable that I may go the whole day withouthardly realizing I am wearing glasses at all.

Okay, so by now you’ve discovered that I’m not a poet. I wouldn’t even recognize a poet if one were presented to me on a silver platter. But that doesn’t matter, for who would put the former on the latter?Enough chatter; I’m off to tea with the mad...

* Remember good ol’ ROY G. BIV? Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet: the colors of the rainbow. In fact, rainbows are not seven distinct colors stuck together, but rather a continuous spectrumof colors. There is no one “line” between, say, red and orange. The change is gradual, encompassing every possible color along the way. So ROY G. BIV is a meaningless arbitrary division, an attempt by thehuman race to simplify the grandeur and majesty of the natural world!

Where was I? Oh yes, the point here is that ProDesign frames come in so many different colors as to put even the mighty rainbow (which, if you’ve been reading very carefully, you now know to have infinity colors) to shame. Sorry to have to explain a joke with a footnote, but I just couldn’t pass up a teaching opportunity!

Copyright © 1997 - 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All Rights Reserved.