The proud hunter mounts the busts of his prey, reminders of conquests on many an adventure, deep in the wilds.

But no taxidermic deer, moose or antelope hang in his home. His walls are adored with beasts far more monstrous.

The heads of a “mind flayer” and an “owl bear” — creatures of Dungeons & Dragons lore — decorate Michael Jimenez’s game room, furnished with fantastical figurines and assorted medieval weaponry. A flail dangles. Swords shine all around.

And a custom table dominates from the center of the room.

Jimenez, 49, owns and operates The Weathered Dragon, which constructs gaming tables tailor-made for enthusiasts of Dungeons & Dragons and other similar sci-fi and fantasy tabletop role-playing games.

Each table takes a month to build and on average sells for between $12,000 and $15,000.

A game table by Michael Jimenez of The Weathered Dragon game tables in South Mills, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot)

Commissions come from all across the country. He once shipped a table to Western Australia.

This month, Jimenez walked into his game room in his South Mills, North Carolina, home that he shares with his wife and children and circled to the back of the 6-by-6 custom table he keeps for himself. He flipped a switch, turning on internal LED light strips.

The table glowed purple and blue. He touched its African mahogany hardwood and slowly patted the tabletop.

“To think, it’s all for a game,” he said, with a smile, knowing the brand’s extreme popularity.

A view figures on the game table of Michael Jimenez, the owner of The Weathered Dragon game tables, in South Mills, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot)

The company that owns D&D, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, estimates that over 50 million people have played since its 1974 release.

The game is based on storytelling — and imagination. Players are the characters in their own narrative of adventure, choosing who and what they want to be.

They first select their species. One can always, of course, choose to be human. Elf, gnome, dwarf, orc, half-orc, half-human are all also fun choices.

Next they choose a specialty: warrior, mage, a healing cleric, etc.

One person, the dungeon master, guides the players through a fantasy land and sets the framework for the adventure.

Dice are rolled to determine if individuals’ actions — i.e. picking locks on treasure chests, stabbing malevolent necromancers — succeed or fail. Miniature figurines that depict players’ characters and their foes are sometimes employed to enhance the imaginative experience. Hence, the need for a good table.

Jimenez played Dungeons & Dragons as a teenager but took a more than 20-year hiatus from its magical world until 2017, when he walked into a store to buy Magic: The Gathering trading cards for his son. He noticed a D&D starter kit on a shelf, took it home and played a little with his kids before reaching out to other adults inquiring if they might want to play.

Soon he built an official group of local friends who’d gather at his house to play. And Jimenez, who’d worked as a home improvement contractor for years, built a table for their games.

Its bar height gives the option of sitting or standing. The table is equipped with cup holders and decked out with ornamentations such as old-timey lanterns and runic carvings.

Michael Jimenez, the owner of The Weathered Dragon game tables, talks about the construction of the tables built in his garage in South Mills, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot)

His friends persuaded him to take his table to the biggest tabletop gaming convention in the country, Gen Con, a multiday festival that hosts about 70,000 per day. He set up his wares in its Hall of Vendors and quickly received five orders for custom tables.

He officially founded his company in 2019 and routinely travels with samples of his work to U.S. gaming conventions, steadily picking up new commissions.

Customers can choose their preferred wood and designs, including maxims or spells carved into the table frame in languages such as the elvish ones developed by J.R.R. Tolkien for his “The Lord of the Rings” books.

On his own table, Jimenez carved in the language of Tolkien’s dwarves: “Gather here and be merry, forget your woes and slay dragons.”

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Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

Edward Lotterman

Before his disastrous invasion of Russia, Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Geography is destiny!”

This assertion prompts thinking about how geography and topography influences development of economies over time and why apparently similar countries in climate and resources can have quite different economic outcomes.

Consider Brazil, Canada and the United States — three large continental countries with long coastlines, deep interiors and abundant endowments of natural resources, including those for agriculture, mining, energy and forestry.

All three began with settlement or conquest by Europeans that involved forcibly taking the lands of native peoples already decimated by European diseases. Immigration has long been an ongoing process for all. Two, Brazil and the United States, brought hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans, creating deep social and economic fissures still open today.

All three began with coastal enclaves. The political and social organization of what became the United States was such that immigration from several European nations began early on. The early experience of Canada or Brazil was relatively smaller. Brazil was formed from a series of land grants to powerful individuals who developed plantation systems producing sugar, cacao and coffee for export. There was little manufacturing and few people who were free, white and working-class. This system was not all that different from some parts of the southern colonies in North America or the Dutch “patroons” with vast estates along the Hudson River in what is now New York.

But such concentration eroded over time. There was land available for smallholders in Georgia and the Carolinas when Scots-Irish refugees fleeing conflict with England sought new homes in the New World.

All three countries had resources extending into distant interiors. Exploration of these vast interiors would be a major theme in the origin myths and histories these nations adopted and still tell. For all three, conquest and displacement of native peoples would be a major theme, but larger-scale and more violent in the United States than that in Canada or Brazil.

Early on, the U.S. economy had some advantages. There were many good natural harbors on the coast, providing decentralized points for immigration, trade and access to fisheries. In many areas there were relatively fertile coastal plains extending a hundred or more miles west to Appalachia. Rivers from the interior, including the Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, James, and others, provided avenues for varied forms of water transport as well as sites for developing waterpower in their basins as the industrial revolution began to unfold. Some, like the Missouri, provided direct access to the deep continental interior.

There are mountains in our country, but these were set back from the coast and had openings through them. The Delaware Water Gap from New Jersey into Pennsylvania was only 290 feet above sea level while the Cumberland Gap from Virginia into Kentucky and Tennessee is about 300. Once through these gaps, the land might trend upward, but there were no harsh mountain passes. From Pittsburgh, about 250 trail miles and 700 feet above Baltimore’s Chesapeake Bay, the Ohio River was navigable downstream all the way to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. All that was ours after the 1803 Louisiana purchase.

All this meant that if European settlers found farmable land in the interior, it was feasible to transport output back to the Atlantic on wagons or canal boats or by driving livestock on foot. And, early on, it was possible to go downstream on flatboats or keel boats all the way to the Gulf where sailing ships could take it to east coasts ports or to Europe. After the first steamboat left Pittsburgh for New Orleans in late 1811, travel upstream as well as down was simplified.

In New York, a man-made canal from Lake Erie connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and New York Harbor, enabling a commercial water transport system from Chicago, Detroit and points west. This opened up vast areas of the U.S. interior for exporting farm and forest products to the east coast and overseas. Derided during construction as a doomed waste of money, the Erie Canal paid off its bonds from tolls in one year.

We in the U.S. take all this for granted. Canada also built canals around the Lachin Rapids on the St. Lawrence to reach Lake Ontario and then through a series of very expensive locks for the 326 foot rise up to Lake Erie. While there are very rich agricultural lands from Toronto west toward Detroit, their area was small compared with the Ohio River Valley and all the lands that led to it via rivers like the Tennessee or the Wabash.

The arc from Lake Huron around lower Michigan and down to Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin opened up huge areas of prime farmland. First sailing and then steam vessels could haul wheat as far as Buffalo, N.Y. But the north, Canadian side of the Great Lakes was the largely rocky Laurentian Shield, eventually rich in copper, nickel and other metals, but not great for agriculture.

Brazil faced similar problems. The great Amazon in its north drains large areas as does the Parana-River Plate watershed to its south that reaches the Atlantic in the estuary between Argentina and Uruguay, The San Francisco flows north for hundreds of miles before hooking a right and dropping to the Atlantic. But these all have rapids or waterfalls that still impede transportation.

But the major continental divide for Brazil is close to the Atlantic coast and drains away to the west, south and north, making downstream shipping to the Atlantic open to a relatively small area of the country.

The city of Sao Paulo is only 35 miles inland from its port of Santos, but it is 2,500 feet higher in elevation. Yet nearly all the rain that falls on the city’s metro area flows west and south until reaching the River Plate south of Asuncion, Paraguay.

Curitiba is the capital of the state of Parana which is nearly as large as Illinois and Indiana put together and equally as fertile. But the city is at 3,066 feet elevation even though only 45 road miles from the Atlantic. Parana is where the Brazilian soybean boom started 60 years ago. Until 2000, virtually all the soybeans the country exported had to come from the west and northwest on straight trucks, coming uphill as much as 2,500 feet over 500 miles before dropping the 3,000 feet in 45 miles to its port of Paranagua on the other side of the watershed. Unloading traffic jams often stretched back as much as 50 miles.

This abrupt coastal escarpment meant that there were few good sites in Brazil for water-powered textile or metal-working mills like forges. There was little incentive to build railroads because until recently there was little exportable product to get to the coast. Railroads reached into coffee growing areas and sugar plantations of the northeast, but there never has been a national net. Production of many possible products was limited because there was no transportation out; railroads or roads were not built because there was nothing to haul. This unfortunate topography is shared with many poor countries from Congo in Africa to Laos in Asia.

Canada faced the same dilemma. Its prairie provinces are as rich agriculturally as the Dakotas and Montana. But those in the U.S. needed only relatively short railroads to reach the Missouri or Mississippi rivers for export. Moreover, such lines were extensions of a large existing rail network that had grown across the U.S. Midwest.

The vast development after 1849 of California, which shared equally if not greater riches in farmland, minerals and natural ports, gave reason for U.S. transcontinental railroads. But in Canada, there was little other than forest products and fish to ship from British Columbia at a time when there still were vast forests between there and eastern Canada. So the farmgate price of wheat or barley in many areas north of the Canadian border was lower than in our country until the Canadian rail net filled in.

Such problems persist in Brazil. Cargill built a large soybean-lading facility at Santarem, some 500 miles up the Amazon. Soy can come north to there by truck or on river barges from smaller ports. But the road, extending 2,000 miles north-south from the Paraguayan border to the Amazon, is largely unpaved and in the rainy season is a sea of mud. That boggles the mind until one learns that in the Amazon basin there often are gaps of 100 miles or more between gravel pits, rock quarries or any other source of aggregates.

There are many lessons here. One is that we don’t know how good we naturally have had it. Another is that idealized free markets seldom solved the “coordination problem” to overcome topographical challenges. And the role of state and national governments in fostering the construction of canals, railroads, river improvements and ports had substantial payoffs.

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St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

Amy C. Arnott of Morningstar

I recently dug into the pros and cons of dividend reinvestment. Readers of the article sent me questions about other dividend-related topics. Here are some of the most common questions I got:

What should I know about reinvested dividends and wash sales?

Reinvesting dividends means purchasing additional shares, which can complicate sales or tax-loss harvesting in taxable accounts. The IRS’ wash-sale rules prohibit claiming a tax loss after a sale if you’ve purchased the same or “substantially identical” security 30 days before or after selling. You could wait at least 30 days after a dividend before selling, and make sure to sell at least 30 days before the next dividend, but to reduce hassle, it’s probably best not to reinvest dividends for holdings that you plan to sell soon.

If I reinvest dividends, will I end up with fractional shares that are difficult to sell?

Reinvesting dividends typically means purchasing small amounts that get added to your existing stock/fund position. You’ll probably end up with fractional shares, where you own only part of a share. Most major brokerages let you sell fractional shares, but you typically need to sell fractional shares as a market order, and liquidating fractional shares may take an additional day.

How are dividends taxed?

For stocks and stock funds, the tax rate depends on whether the dividend is qualified or nonqualified (also called ordinary). Dividends are qualified if you meet the 60-day holding requirement within a 121-day window around the ex-dividend date; these are taxed at capital gains rates — 0% or 15% for most people. Others are taxed as ordinary income. Dividends from holdings that don’t meet these requirements are nonqualified and are taxed as ordinary income.

Bond or bond fund payments are considered interest income and are typically taxed as ordinary income. Income from Treasury bonds is exempt from state and local taxes, and income from municipal bonds is usually exempt from federal, state, and local taxes, depending on the issuer’s location.

Are reinvested dividends taxable?

As I mentioned in another article, dividends for holdings in taxable accounts are taxable whether taken in cash or reinvested. If you reinvest dividends, you’ll need to add each dividend to the holding’s cost basis. You could end up with many separate tax lots with different cost-basis levels. When you sell the stock, you’ll need to match each sale with a specific tax lot.

Are stocks that pay dividends better?

Money is fungible — it doesn’t matter whether you receive it as income or capital appreciation. A company’s value shouldn’t depend on whether it pays a dividend. However, behavioral finance researchers have found that many investors perceive dividends as more stable and predictable than capital gains. Tax issues are another important consideration.

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How do dividend-oriented strategies perform in a recession?

Dividend stocks historically hold up well during economic slowdowns and can provide downside protection in drawdowns. However, funds that focus on high-yield stocks without incorporating quality screens tend to be more exposed to economically sensitive sectors, and companies that may not be able to keep paying dividends during recessions.

Can I live off my portfolio’s dividends and interest income in retirement?

Some investors like this approach. Dividends can create steady income similar to a regular paycheck, and many investors like the idea of leaving their principal untouched. However, it can be tough to create a portfolio that generates enough yield for an income-only approach, especially one that keeps pace with inflation.

An income-only approach to support retirement spending might mean you’d need to amass a larger portfolio. By the same token, an income-focused approach means you would likely be underspending during retirement and might end up with a large portfolio balance after death. That might appeal to retirees who have a strong interest in leaving a bequest, but limits your spending while you’re alive.

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

Amy C. Arnott, CFA is a portfolio strategist for Morningstar.

Orion the Hunter is such a great constellation, and I have to believe many stargazers share the same opinion. Even if you’re not all that much of a stargazer, you can’t help but notice the mighty celestial hunter prowling westward across the winter heavens.

It’s one of the few constellations that actually resembles what it’s supposed to be. With just a passing glance you can easily see the torso of Orion with his broad shoulders and gigantic thighs. To me and others, Orion also resembles a giant hourglass oriented diagonally in the evening southeastern sky. In this week’s Skywatch, I want to feature at least a few of Orion’s many astronomical treasures. Next week will be storytime as I’ll share some of the great mythological tales involving Orion.

Armed with many layers of clothes, boots and your warmest hat, you can brave the January cold. Something warm to sip on really helps, as well. If you can be out in the countryside, great, but even in suburban skies plagued with moderate light pollution, I think you’ll like what you see. Binoculars and/or a small telescope enhance the experience but are not strictly necessary.

Orion’s great calling card is, without a doubt, his belt, made up of three bright stars close together in a nearly straight line. Even though the belt stars Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka appear to be close together, they are physically nowhere near each other. They’re not only hundreds of light-years from Earth, but hundreds of light-years from each other. Call it a celestial coincidence or divine intervention that these stars align as orderly as they do from our vantage point in the Milky Way galaxy.

Below Orion’s belt stars, there are three more stars in a short line that aren’t quite as bright. That trio makes up Orion’s sword, and without too much eyestrain, you can see that the middle star is “fuzzy.” That’s not a single star but rather a stellar nursery. You’re witnessing the Great Orion Nebula. It’s around 1,500 light-years away, with just one light year equaling nearly 6 trillion miles. It’s a gigantic cloud of hydrogen gas, and with a small telescope, or even a decent pair of binoculars, you can see a tiny cluster of at least four stars near the center. These infant stars were born gravitationally out of this giant mass of hydrogen gas during the last several million years, although one of the stars may be as young as 50,000 years old, which is extremely young when you’re talking stellar. The Hubble telescope has even detected what may be planets developing around the new stars.

The Orion Nebula (Mike Lynch)

As intriguing as the Orion Nebula is through a “conventional” visual telescope, it’s incredible through a smart photographic telescope like a ZWO See Star S50, or S30, both less than $600. I really think these scopes are the wave of the future. They’re easy to operate and are nearly light pollution-proof. Anyway, with one of these photographic scopes you’ll see more structure to the nebula and it’ll be in color, mainly a mauve-ish tint. Attached is a photo of the Orion Nebula I took with my SeeStar S50.

The reason we see the Orion Nebula as well as we do is that it’s literally being lit up like a fluorescent light. The very young and extremely active stars hidden within the nebula are emitting so much intense radiation that the atomic structure of the surrounding gas is disrupted, causing it to glow as brightly as it does. We’re only seeing just a small part of the Orion Nebula though. There’s a lot more to it that isn’t glowing, but thousands and thousands of stars are still forming within it that will eventually light up the surrounding hydrogen womb.

(Mike Lynch)

Another one of Orion’s celestial hallmarks is the bright star Betelgeuse in the upper left corner of the hunter. Like many stars, Betelgeuse has an Arabic name. Arabic cultures in the Middle Ages and earlier cataloged the night sky, and many of their star names are still in use today.  What I love about the name Betelgeuse is that it roughly translates to English as “armpit of the great one”. As you can see in the diagram Betelgeuse actually marks the armpit of Orion.

Astronomically, Betelgeuse is one of the single biggest things you’ve ever seen. It’s considered a red supergiant star, and even with the naked eye you can detect its reddish hue. Betelgeuse fluctuates in diameter and brightness. Most astronomers believe its diameter fluctuates from about 400 million miles to over 800 million miles. Our own home star, the sun isn’t even a million miles in diameter. Betelgeuse is approximately 600 light-years from Earth, and is dying a slow death that someday will turn extremely violent! It’s using up all of the hydrogen and helium fuel in its core. When that happens to extremely massive stars like Betelgeuse, they become extremely unstable, and eventually the star explodes in a spectacular fashion. This is called a supernova explosion. Many astronomers think this could happen to Betelgeuse within a million years, maybe even next week. I wouldn’t wait up for it outside in your lawn chair, though. You could turn into a popsicle!

There are many more astronomical treasures in the constellation Orion that you can explore with apps like Sky Guide and many others, but its belt, the Orion Nebula and Betelgeuse are the big three. What I also love about Orion are all the other bright stars and constellations that surround the great heavenly hunter. I like to call this part of the sky “Orion and his gang,” and this winter, the very bright planet Jupiter is a member of the gang. Jupiter’s also the brightest star-like object in the entire night sky.

Get to know the main player of the winter sky, and I know you’ll fall in love with him, too. Next week, the great stories of Orion.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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