Sense of Adventure

I just learned by email that Jack Speer died overnight.

Jack was a member of First Fandom - the pioneers! - a mainstay of the Albuquerque Science Fiction Society, and a friend. He and his wife Ruth, who survives him, played gracious hosts to many a pleasant pre-Bubonicon party.

Sad news. Fandom in general and our Albuquerque fannish family are diminished. Jack is missed.

My condolences to Ruth and the children.

(I note that his death is already mentioned in his Wikipedia entry, linked to above.)

Dungeons & Dragons (and before that Chainmail, a proto-RPG which I played in a campaign run by Walter Jon Williams) co-creator Gary Gygax has died.

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Those of us who have enjoyed, and devoted far too much life, time, and creative energy to, role-playing games, owe Gygax a deep (if somewhat ambivalent) debt. So do those of us who make our living as professional fantasists - by which I include SF writers, by the way: all SF, and arguably all fiction, is a subset of fantasy. Like J. K. Rowling he brought us many, many potential customers, in the form of readers turned onto fantastic fiction through his work.

Naturally, those of us who have earned income from role-playing games or RPG-derived fiction owe him big time. Since Wild Cards started life as an RPG (you knew this, yes?), and I wrote a D&D novel, War in Tethyr, he’s got some pretty specific gratitude coming from me.

He had his enemies and critics. Anybody who leaves a mark is going to. Especially in such insular, and strongly overlapping, circles as gaming and SF&F.

I don’t know much - okay, anything, really - about Gygax as a person. But I’ll readily say of him: hail, farewell, and thanks for everything.

(Thanks to David Weigel on the Hit & Run blog for the heads-up. Lolcat added 3/7/2008, courtesy of, where else, I Can Has Cheezburger? And if you think that’s inappropriate, I only hope that when I die, I rate my own Lolcat.)

So today I dropped a cool $124 and change on supplies at Costco. Eggs, facial tissue, olive oil … that sort of thing. I impulse bought a door mat for $19. Okay, so I’ve needed one for a couple years now. But it’s not a necessity.

On the one hand I suppose I need to be cautious, what with price inflation just starting to blow up. If I were smart I’d probably split for two tons of toilet paper. There’s something that’s going to continue to be in demand. Of course, a year from now that door mat’ll probably be worth a million dollars. Then again, a decent scavenged wood screw will go for more than my current net worth.

… Anyway, the mat’s going right back, it turns out. It’s huge. It’s not so much a welcome mat as a porch carpet. Ah, well. Shoulda read the specs closer.

Meanwhile … to actually talk about the nominal subject of this post … I saw what struck me as a leading contender for Worst Dog Toy Ever: the Plush-Toy Skunk.

Um. Leaving aside the cliché in the room, skunks are redoubtable predators who can quite savagely rip on a dog with powerful claws as well as teeth.

And now, not leaving aside the obvious … hello: they’re skunks?

Do you really want to accustom your dog to the idea it’s a good idea to play with them? What’s next? Cuddles the Rattlesnake? Mr. Sparky the Chewable Electric Cord?

It’s like giving your kid a Bath-Buddy Toaster.

Among the other somewhat bizarre and variegated wildlife we’ve got in my neighborhood, there indeed are skunks. How do I know? Well - and you’re not going to believe this, I know - I’ve smelled them. Especially in the Spring.

Love. It’s in the air, baby.