Pakled
Pakled was the Khai Tam nickname for George Sumpter. Members of the club who were particularly active or noteworthy generally were given (or adopted) nicknames.
Origin
The Pakleds are a fictional race of humanoids in the Star Trek universe, which were introduced in the TNG episode, "The Samaritan Snare." Pakleds are dim-witted, slow-talking dullards who lack the knowledge or even mental capacity to do or invent for themselves, but rather resort to thieving and trickery to get others to do that of which they are incapable.
One late afternoon, George and Jon Reddick had spent the bulk of the day at Jon's apartment in Forest Hills playing Amiga computer games and working on Khai Tam materials for the coming weekend. At one point, George lay exhausted and hungry on the floor of the living room near Jon's entertainment center cabinet. George noticed the bottom door of the cabinet was slightly ajar, and he started quietly clicking it open an closed with his foot. How long this went on before it was noticed by Jon is unknown, but when Jon did look up from his computer to see why his friend was so quiet, what he saw was George lying flat on his back, completely and utterly enthralled with the opening and closing of the cabinet door.
It took Jon a couple of tries to even get George's attention. George acknowledged that his brain was pretty tired from the work they had been doing and he was having trouble concentrating, explaining how he had just zoned out and watched his foot open & close the cabinet door.
Having just recently see the Star Trek episode introducing the Pakled race, Jon referenced a line of dialog from the show, "We look for things; things to make us go..." George immediately understood the reference and both had a great laugh.
At the next club meeting, Jon (never being one to let a chance to rib George escape), made a point to reference the incident from days earlier in the presence of all of the other members. Little or none the backstory ever got referenced, but by how George hung and shook his head, it was clear that referencing Pakleds got his goat.
Shortly thereafter, most probably as a defense mechanism, George started to embrace the jokes, and even adopted the nickname, Pakled as his own, and it stuck.
It bears noting that though he carries the nickname related to the dim-witted fictional Star Trek race, George shares none of their traits. In reality he is a very sharp-witted individual with a unique sense of humor and almost limitless versatility. Though he can produce a convincing dull stare.
