Today, memes can come and go in a few hours. When many of us were kids, a meme could last an entire childhood. That’s why the death of Leonard Nimoy feels so personal. In the NYT, Virginia Heffernan fits a lot into the opening sentence of Nimoy’s obituary: “Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut Star Trek, died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.” (Leonard Nimoy took Spock as seriously as we kids did. That was an incredible gift. Beam him up…)

+ “Days after it was the on the air, I was getting it on the street.” Nimoy explains the Jewish origins of his vulcan gesture.

+ “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.” Nimoy was saying goodbye for months on Twitter

+ “I loved him like a brother.” William Shatner and other celebrities say goodbye.

+ Esquire: Leonard Nimoy — What I’ve Learned.