Young nerdlings of the world, unite!

On a non-kissing related topic, check out this editorial about D&D. It's not often that solitary pursuits involving 20 sided dice are lauded in the pages of our nation's papers, so it's nice to see something besides articles about childhood obesity or teen pregnancy.

Like the author, I invented entire worlds for my own amusement. This was perfected through years of social isolation and spoiling by relatives who bought me far too many model horses and stuffed toys (all of which had their own melodramatic stories). However, I grew up in Texas, where no one I knew played D&D. I had a book that a random person had discarded, but no idea where to find other nerds. If I hadn't gotten obsessed with boys in high school I probably would have taught myself Elvish or something. That at least you can do on your own. Instead I just made careful paper miniature replicas of all the weapons in LOTR and filled out dozens of postcards in pursuit of a free trip to New Zealand to watch the filming of the movies. (Those events were separated by years, but I suppose that just proves that my nerd streak runs deep.)