That’s kinda the message of the last paragraph.

I grew up playing in the late 70s/early 80s, and honestly I didn’t give Gygax a second thought. He was pretty well known to be a coked-up crazy coot, and most of the really interesting AD&D materials weren’t made by him anyway. By the late 80s he was mostly out of the picture.

I lived in Burbank for a decade, and drove by the water tower a couple days a week.

Oh how frequently I wished they would come bouncing out.

It’s a common high school chem lab demonstration. Without added oxygen, the H2 balloons sort of burn from the outside in, and you get a sort of slow burning mushroom plume. It could light paper or cloth on fire in close proximity.

With added oxygen… BLAM! It could shatter windows.

Well the original formula wasn’t. The current formula contains small amounts of both paraffin and mineral oil.

Sorry.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/26/foodanddrink.travelnews?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

You mean when he’s not admitting to felony crimes to advance his career?