I spent some time in my post Soft Spot talking about nostalgia related things. I mentioned the whole “suffering for your hobby” bit in there. I have, over the years, had the reoccurring thought that I should gather a list of actual facts to drag out whenever somebody provokes me enough to defend Dungeons and Dragons.

Once again I find myself looking at something I thought I was alone in and finding just the opposite is true. There is apparently a book coming out titled “Bad For You” that has gone and done that work – and likely extended it a lot further than I would have had I gone after this topic (who knew chess was once considered bad for kids?).

The thing that caught my eye was in the use of the tragic story of Dallas Egbert, a child prodigy who committed suicide, and the publicity-chasing detective who linked his suicide to his love of Dungeons & Dragons. I have the book and have read it more than once. There are also ties to the most unforgivable role of Tom Hanks’s long career – starring in one of those “based on the true story” movies called Mazes and Monsters (actually based on a Rona Jaffe novel that was based on the inaccurate news accounts I believe – cause novels are where we always find the best facts after all). I really thought I was one of a very tiny number of people that actually remembered this case, and the fact that all of the other issues in this kid’s life were totally overlooked (at least until after the splashy headlines were gone).

There’s a lot of stuff out there now that I’ve jumped down the rabbit hole. I can’t wait to dig up The Pulling Report by Michael A. Stackpole (an author I met at a GenCon once – check out his X-Wing novels, they’re fantastic. I wonder what else will turn up as we go?