Spocking Fives

Actor Leonard Nimoy's death last Friday set off a craze of marking-up banknotes in Canada. It is meant to be a touching tribute to Nimoy – where Trekkies are "Spocking Fives", i.e. putting images of Nimoy’s famous Star Trek character on the country's currency bill.

 

Canada's $5 note features a large image of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, and the banknote is a shade of blue that's incredibly close to that of the uniform worn by Spock in "Star Trek."

 

On that Friday itself, Canadian Design Resource, a site for Canadian designers, sent out a tweet urging Canadians to "Spock" their $5 bills by taking a pen and turning Laurier’s portrait into a picture of Mr. Spock.

Image credit: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31717210

The idea of "Spocking Fives" isn't entirely new, and can be traced back to at least 2008 when the "Spock Your Fives" Facebook group was founded to encourage people to add the Vulcan's face to the $5 banknote. Canada switched from paper to plastic currency at the end of 2013, and the new material made it more difficult to "Spock" the $5 bill, but not impossible.

 

The practice isn't illegal, but the Bank of Canada strongly objects to the mutilation or defacement of bank notes. "Writing on a bank note may interfere with the security features and reduces its lifespan," the Bank of Canada said. "Markings on a note may also prevent it from being accepted in a transaction."

 

Given how beloved Nimoy was, I hope this Spock-ified currency will take a note from the man himself and live long and prosper.

 

World No.1 Nicol David had swept into the final of the Windy City Open after seeing off the challenge of Egypt’s Nour El Tayeb. – she won 11-9, 13-11, 12-10 on Tuesday.

 

A day later, David renewed her rivalry with world No. 2 Raneem El Welily of Egypt in the final. The latter recovered from dropping a marathon first game to register a 14-16, 12-10, 11-7, 11-7 win in 58 minutes.

 

Nicol David may have lost but I am sure she will bounce back!