I had to stop working to think about life and death today. Many of us did.

They often say that our business is a business of youth.

But you never expect those who are young to leave, to go, to die.

Rannie Yoo was a public relations person par excellence. Like many of the public relations pros with which we writers deal, she was a sweetheart, funny, thoughtful, giving. She certainly always went the extra mile for me whenever I had a request.

I’ve been patiently trying for a while to have a nice, long-ish chat with Mr. Miyamoto, Mario’s and Link’s storied creator. Yesterday, Nintendo granted my wish.

Nerd alert: Writer Does Stupid Physical Thing. So during theweek, I sit on my butt all morning and through the early evening, writing (andplaying games). This year, there’s mucho more writing due to the video gamehistory book I’m doing, The Game Changers. I hate leaving the desk, but when I’mdone, I’m leaving the country and no one’s gonna find me for months.

Nothing big to say -- except the fanboy in me went 'Holy Crap!' when I opened the box from Nintendo.

It included a Bowser stuffed animal, a Mario beanbag doll, a white DSi, a backpack and the Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Insider Story game. Me, I'd have been happy with just the game. The other stuff is really cool, though.

OMG! Games are good for the gray matter! I'm not exactly sure when the first scientific study about the benificient qualities of game playing came about. But it probably occurred some time during the Atari era. Since the advent of the Nintendo Brain Games on Wii and especially DS, these studies have become ubiquitous. PopCap seems to put one out every few months. 

And yet, they're always somehow compelling to hear about, even if the company making the game sponsors a scientist or a doctor for the research.

So I've got MSNBC on in the background and there's this hilarious video of a seven year old kid from Utah jacking a car. I mean, look at the little bastard run from the cop (at the end of the video)!

Klint Anderson, the buttoned up Utah cop interviewed by phone on TV, said that the boy was influenced by a video game in which you drive away from police. Now I assume the kid wasn't playing GTA. Think it might've been the Need For Speed series? Goes to show you, those 'T' ratings mean 'teen,' kid. 

Game critics are always happy to see what kind of PR-related kitsch comes in the mail. It's like the holiday for those who appreciate gifts that are $5 and under. 

Man, am I bummed about the death of Arturo Gatti. The talent in that guy...gone too soon.

Along with Crispy-ites Scott Jones and Steve Kent, I'm a big boxing fan. So when I was the game critic for The Village Voice, I got a call one day asking if I wanted to go to a demo of Fight Night Round 3. I had a deadline (always do), so ole grumbleass hesitated ... until they told me I could play Arturo Gatti at the game. 

There are two mags I read religiously. The best is The Week (by far the only mag you need to read) and the second is Us (the best mag to make you feel cheap and dirty).

Are they high?

I started checking out eBay video game collectibles recently, and, man, are these things overpriced. I can almost understand that the frenzy surrounding MJ made someone believe they could get a $2,000 for the middling but fun Moonwalker game. More reasonable was a Tim-Schaefer-signed copy of Grim Fandango for around 500 clams.