This One's Brought To One DM From Another...

No wonder the Manhattan Transfer's so savvy with derivatives and other "imaginary instruments". From Friday's WSJ:

Dungeons & Dragons was born in the 1970s, a technological lifetime ago. Today the same kids who might have played D&D are more likely to be online playing World of Warcraft. While I have no experience with that newfangled game, I'm sure that the graphics are stunning, that the technology is awe-inspiring and that the ability to do battle with people from across the globe is thrilling.

But at the risk of sounding like a geek and a curmudgeon at once, in my day we did it the old-fashioned way. In all likelihood we were in somebody's basement, sitting around a table with our dice at the ready and our character sheets in front of us. My brother John was the dungeon master, and he was a good one, too. My brothers -- Mike and Tim -- and I, along with our friends Chris and John (I'll withhold their last names to protect their reputations), spent hours at a time exploring a world that existed only in our imaginations. D&D was, after all, much more like old-time storytelling than the videogames that have come after it. The game allowed our little troupe to star in some of the greatest stories we ever told. For that we owe Gary Gygax our gratitude.

Mr. Carney is a member of the Journal's editorial board.

And there you have it. Drinks on me at Spitzer's tonight.