Two obits became known to me today.

Kam Fong. Back in the early 80's, I saw some random comedian start a routine about Hawaii Five-O, which began roughly. "Kam Fong as Chin Ho, and vice versa," a phrase which registered with me on so many levels. Hawaii Five-O always fascinated me as a small child, because I understood none of it, but it was just outside of my reach (11:30 being a common young Kidder's bedtime, and regular as Juiceman's colon, 11:30 Sunday night was Hawaii Five-O reruns on Channel 2, at least until 1992. I once theorized that wherever you were in the world, if it was 11:30 Sunday, Hawaii Five O was on, seeing it in Cleveland, and Virginia Beach. After theorizing this, I then saw it in Hamburg, Germany, dubbed, which I think proved my case until the age of Baywatch.) Kam Fong in particular was fascinating, as this was my first exposure to Asian-Americans beyond stereotype. Of course, in the episode where he was shot, and I found out Chin's full name was Chin Ho Kelly, was a classic little WTF? moment for me. (And I suspect for many of you just now.) On occasion, Hawaii Five-O would enter my mind as I drove past Canonsburg's Chinese restaurant (coincidentally named Kam Fong, I assume no relation). Stiffs.com gave him a very nice send-off. And so I join them. Mahalo, Chin Ho.

Sid Sackson. When I was 10 years old, I stumbled across a copy of Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games, a book he published of about 38 games he or his friends had developed. I knew his work from Games Magazine, but I didn't realize at the time how many cool little games he had been responsible for (Domination, Bazaar, Acquire, and Can't Stop being the four I most identified with him). In the 1970's Sackson was the closest equivalent to some of the top German developers today, and he was still creating. A Gamut of Games was a wonderful eye-opener for me, in terms of understanding the mechanics of games, and what makes them fun. Probably had I not run into quiz bowl, following in his path might have been my afterwork activity. According to the reports, he wanted no eulogy, oh, well. Instead, play a couple rounds of something he did, I'd highly recommend Monad, which has a DOS version on the same website. You'll be frustrated, infuriated, and then you'll start to understand it, and you'll be amazed by how elegantly it works. I'm half tempted to go out to the auction of his game collection next weekend.