Link Tank: How Dungeons and Dragons Changed in Quarantine
Dungeons and Dragons in quarantine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dark humor as a coping mechanism, and more in today's Link Tank!
The COVID-19 quarantine is changing the way people play Dungeons and Dragons.
“Outside McNiff’s home in Woburn, Massachusetts, the COVID-19 pandemic has the world in a vise. McNiff’s state has more than 38,000 cases of the virus and 1,700 of those people have died. It’s emptied streets, closed businesses, and kept friends apart. So McNiff, 37, and his friends from the Boston area have escaped into a safer world: that of Dungeons & Dragons.
Things we learned today: Dolly Parton was a producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“The internet suffered a nerd meltdown this week when one of Hollywood’s weirdest connections resurfaced: American treasure Dolly Parton was a secret producer on the iconic series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yep, you read that right. The country music legend herself is behind one of our favorite series of all time.”
Microsoft Office’s newest update flags two spaces after a period as an error.
“For decades, proponents of typing a single space after a period have waged a friendly war against their double-space adversaries on a virtual battlefield. Now, the battlefield itself is taking sides: Microsoft Word will now start marking double spaces between sentences as an error.”
People have long used dark humor as a coping mechanism, but why is it that we do that?
“Life’s hard for the humorless—loved ones die, hurricanes and infections ravage the planet, and all they can do is sit around and grieve about it. Some of us, meanwhile, watching our houses burn down and our spouses succumb to hazily-understood pancreatic ailments, can at least leaven the pain with a well-timed joke. As distraction, coping mechanism or aid to acceptance, dark humor has helped millions through crushing personal and/or world-historical ordeals.”
The FBI is warning people about posting their high school photos on social media.
“The FBI issued the warning as #Classof2020 has been trending on social media, which has prompted high school seniors to post photos of themselves, celebrating their upcoming graduations. To join in on the fun, adults have been posting old photos of their high school years as well.”
IHOP has long been a Ramadan favorite for American Muslims. Here’s how it became so.
“It’s pushing 3 a.m. on Sunday, and the Qazweeni family still hasn’t been seated. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and they are waiting for a table at their local IHOP, located in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. The family of four is competing with both late-night revelers searching for pancakes to sober up, and the handful of other devout Muslim-American families for a table. It may seem like a surprising mix, but in recent years, a number of practicing Muslims make their way to the 24-hour breakfast chain each year during the 30-day-long observance of Ramadan.”
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