Um. iPods have off/on switches? Mine doesn't... If I leave it stopped for a minute or two it goes into sleep mode, and if I leave it alone for a few days it powers itself down. It boots up again (showing the Apple logo for a while) when I press the centre button of the touch wheel. What you describe as a vulcan nerve pinch sounds like the low-level force-reboot option, and I suspect yours had positively crashed in order to require that.