I'll trade you 2 packs of cigarettes for desiccating burst. Quick, swallow your dice, the guards are coming! Don't worry, if you eat the chili tonight for dinner we'll be playing again by lights out.
Why the hell am I talking like I'm in a Kevin Smith remake of The Shawshank Redemption? The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago ruled that a ban on Dungeons & Dragons by the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin was well within their rights. A prisoner by the name of Kevin T. Singer originally attested his First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights were violated by the prison’s decision. They confiscated all of his materials pertaining to the game including a 96-page handwritten manuscript he put together himself. Dude, Dungeon Master got pwned.
The NY Times reported, "Mr. Singer, 'a D&D enthusiast since childhood,' according to the court’s opinion, was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for bludgeoning and stabbing his sister’s boyfriend to death." Bludgeoning. Hmm, sounds like just another day for good ol' Ketar the Half-orc. One couldn't possibly imagine why the prison would want to take it away from him. Their official reasoning? "Dungeons & Dragons could 'foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from the real-life correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior,' prison officials said in court."
As much sense as that might make to us NPCs, some are arguing D&D is no different than other forms of entertainment allowed by the prison system. The NY Times cited a blog post by Ilya Somin, an associate professor of law at George Mason University. He posed the question, “Should prisons ban ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ on the grounds that it might encourage escape attempts?” He later said in an interview, “Ideally, you should really have more evidence that there is a genuine harm before you restrict something."
The NY Times also pointed out that while there were varied opinions on the ruling at the legally focused blog, "they showed that there were many lawyers who at some point owned a pouch with some dice of more than six sides." It's nice to see the NY Times having a bit of fun with this one. Don't worry though, just like drugs and porn, I'm sure D&D will find it's way back into Waupun Correctional *cough*Hide In Plain Sight*cough* somehow...
Batman Snow instead of the cover to Detective Comics #27 because we're having another storm here in New Jersey and Batman is the best.
That's exactly what I said when I read the previous owner of the issue paid $100 for it 40 years ago. I, for one, would like to know who these rich geeks are who keep buying $1 million comics. But like, really. If you have their number or email address, please pass it along. I'd like to be their friend. I'll dress up like this if that's what it takes.
