oh… I’m sorry to post again, but I just wanted to say that if you do a Yahoo image search for “Ferengi” there is a comparison picture of a Ferengi and Reggie Miller a few pages in (but the link doesn’t work).
BUT my friends and I have been calling Reggie a Ferengi since about his 2nd or 3rd season. WE THOUGHT OF IT FIRST!!! (so NYAH!!)
I loved the Ferengi, especially Quark. Quark was that character who is meant to be a loathsome bastard, but is just so cool that you can’t help like him. As has been mentioned, one factor in the Ferengi’s favor is that they are totally unpretentious. The Federation, in contrast, is extremely pretentious, claiming nothing less than utopia. The Ferengi contrast well with the Federation. They are just so perfectly opposed.