A few years ago I was a guest at a convention that didn’t really have its game stuff together. They planned a Q+A session for me, for example, but didn’t put it in the con booklet so anyone would know about it. Surprise, surprise, only one guy wandered by and he had only a vague idea who I was. He half-heartedly asked me one question and while I was answering him, he rolled up his t-shirt and began picking lint out of his belly button.

As you might imagine, I needed a drink afterwards. At the nearly empty bar I discovered a couple of the other con guests. One of them was Dave Arneson. I had met Dave in passing but never had the chance to sit down and really talk to him. So Nicole and I joined Dave and his business partner Dustin and spent a couple of hours drinking and swapping stories. It was delightful and Dave was incredibly nice. When he passed away, I was glad I’d had the opportunity to spend a little time with a man who’d had a serious effect on my life. The ignominious belly lint incident was a small price to pay.