Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, died earlier today. God only knows how many hours I’ve spent playing his game over the years. Many of the tropes he introduced through Castle Greyhawk and the now-iconic characters from his early campaigns are planted in the fertile imaginations of millions of people around the world, young and old. I raise my Bigby’s Interposing Hand in salute, old man.
One year ago today, the good people of Boston displayed their vigilance in the international war on terror by reporting Lite-Brite displays of Ignignokt and Err to the authorities. A shameful display of fear, incompetence, and demagoguery immediately followed. Thank God the perpetrators’ hair was safe.
This past Monday Richard Knerr, the founder of Wham-O, passed away. Wham-O was the company that brought us the Superball, Frisbee, Silly String, Slip ‘n Slide, and consequently hundreds of hours of childhood fun. Mostly these were the kinds of cheap toys that your parents could pick up for pocket change, the kinds of toys you could actually get by just asking while you were at the store. You couldn’t get an expensive G.I. Joe or Transformer that way, no sir. How they ever turned a profit is a tribute to mass production and low petroleum costs, I suppose.