Our long-time helpers — Part 3 of 3
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Michael Keller is one of the pillars of this enterprise. He is the guardian of our many-tentacled data base and all matters financial. His attention to detail and accuracy is legendary. You could call him the Michelangelo of the spreadsheet. We've known Michael since the 1980s, and through the years he helped now and then with thorny programming and other projects before coming on board as a Kadon regular. Like others of our varied crew, Michael shares an interest in games and puzzles, especially polyforms, and for some years published an excellent occasional magazine, the now dormant World Game Review, which had a small but devoted world-wide readership. Michael is also an associate editor for Kadon's The Life of Games journal. He is arguably a world authority on FreeCell and other card solitaires and maintains a website, Solitaire Laboratory, that's a goldmine of information. And he's a very funny guy whose witty one-liners would do Mencken justice. Michael's other passion is volleyball, preferably daily, and he moonlights as a referee for the county's Recreation and Parks leagues. |
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Thomas G. Atkinson came on board on Labor Day, 2004, through a serendipitous meeting with Kate at the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. Turns out he'd known of us and been buying our puzzles for at least 10 years.
From the first moment, he fit like a hand in a glove, and we wondered how we had managed all those years without him. He looks wonderful in costume at our Renaissance Festival booth, and his familiarity with our products quickly made him a fine teacher. His many talents involve him in every facet of our designing, wood and laser production, presentation and logistics. Thomas has been making costumes since shortly after his birth (his "Baby With Bib and Carrots" was voted "Best Use of Roots and Tubers" at GerberCon '64). He attended his first Con in 1976 and has been a permanent fixture since. His costumes include "The Empire State Building," "Chernobyl Clean-Up Crew," "2010 Pajamas," "Winter's End (Potted Plant)," "Spaceman Spiff," and a score of re-creation outfits, including Star Wars and Star Trek. Here we see him in his Jedi Knight garb, holding the "light sabre" he engraved. Thomas is one of the world's greatest Star Wars fans. He started collecting Star Wars toys and memorabilia when the first movie came out in 1976, and he has not stopped since. His collection forms the basis of The Star Toys Museum, of which Thomas is Curator. In 2007, a portion of his collection was on exhibit for several months at the Geppi Museum in Baltimore. Just as Mary had her little lamb, Thomas has his 1970 VW camper. The Van, however, does not make messes in the house, nor do its fenders make good sweaters. Nevertheless, it does have lovely curtains. His other car sports a Star Wars paint design and was on exhibit in Baltimore's 2007 ArtScape parade. Thomas lives at Meerkat Meade with his spouse, writer Don Sakers. |
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 Photograph by Art Blumberg |
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Ken Isbell was such a fan of our Renaissance Festival exhibit for years that he finally talked us into giving him his own game table to explain and entertain visitors with the Royal Game of the Goose and the Game of the Labyrinth. For years his Alan Alda-like good looks and impishness added much to the merriment at Ye Olde Gamery. His work for the Smithsonian Institution in staging exhibits has included working with Star Trek memorabilia and other fascinating slices of history. Ken can wear a Renaissance outfit with dramatic gusto like few others. |
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 Photograph by Art Blumberg |
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Richard Grainger is "Odd Jobs," as his business card reads, and no job is too odd for the luxuriously bearded muscleman from Oella, Maryland. From hauling a ton of lumber from the driveway into the workshop, to stacking freshly stained boards 8 feet high to dry, or fishing a lost paper out from behind file cabinets, or taking on challenge games as Kadon's game master (pictured above) at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, or counting every single component of Kadon stock during the dreaded annual inventory, Richard meets the challenges with verve. He has appeared in a play (Carnival), sung in a choir, served as an artist's model, hauled bolts of cloth for a textile mill, collected garbage, janitored a church, won a bowling trophy, made printed circuit boards, walked across Maryland, been a Mensa member, done a stint in the Army, won First Place in the U.S. National Amazing Science Fiction and Horror Trivia Championship (right) at DexCon 7 on July 18, 2004, and been an extra in the motion picture Forrest Gump. His talent for spoonerized puns and for telling jokes leaves one grasping for clues or gasping for breath from laughter.
Spiderman is his favorite superhero, as captured in this caricature.  Richard is singularly equipped to impersonate another favorite fantasy character, Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Here's a look at Richard and Ken in full regalia at the 2002 Maryland Renaissance Festival, a grand role-playing game in its own right.  Photograph by Art Blumberg Richard has contributed a couple of game ideas and a puzzle set to Kadon's repertoire, and is the unquestioned grand master of Squint Solitaire, having amassed thousands of solutions. D&D, Magic the Gathering, Uno, Mille Bornes, and Fluxx are among his favorite (and frequently played) games.
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