I'm not sure how I missed this, but Anne McCaffrey died two weeks ago. We seem to be on a literary streak here at Intwischa, so I'll mention that I started reading her Dragonriders of Pern books in the sixth grade, and kept on going until college. They were among the first Scifi/Fantasy novels I encountered. In fact, one of my first D&D characters, also from the sixth grade, was a Fighter/Wizard named Dragonrider. Thanks for lots of great memories, Ms. McCaffery, and for introducing me to my favorite genre.