Not to get all mushy over here, but...

Gary Gygax died today. He was the only person I've ever approached in my life in which my status and demeanor were very clearly that of the fanboy. We had a brief email correspondence when I was thirteen or fourteen years old and reading the series of novels he wrote starring Gord the Rogue. I had finished the first two books and I was unable to find the rest of them anywhere. I gave up on brick and mortar book shops and back then, Amazon.com sucked. I decided to try to find the big guy himself and after a while, my Internet ninja skills provided me with his email address.

When I emailed him and bugged him about my problem, he told me about how most of those books had fallen out of print, a most shameful mar on the painted whore face of literature indeed, but then he offered to send me the next two books in the series from his own supply, which he did, and they arrived promptly. I enjoyed them, but not satisfied with the books alone, I demanded that he also answer my many questions on TSR and D&D. Being a swell fucking guy, he answered every one of them thoroughly, never showing impatience or irritation despite the indiscretion of several of my inquiries.

I played D&D. He made D&D. Damn.

Peace out, Gary Gygax.