Mark, my birthday was the day after yours but I couldn’t come up with a trivia question. My wife and I are taking a 20th anniversary trip (delayed 3 years because of COVID first and then a desire to see our German exchange student’s graduation) to Europe. Today, I just had a Piece-a Pisa Pizza in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Knowing your love of pizza, puns and dad jokes, figured you’d get a kick out of this! If you’d indulge a belated birthday question (albeit not Magic trivia), could you please give me your Top 5 favorite musicals (yet another interest we share along with pizza)?

My #1 musical is Little Shop of Horrors. #2 through #5 is a bit harder to classify?Other musicals I’m fond of: Pippin, Beetlejuice, Something Rotten, Chicago, Chess, Book of Mormon, and A Chorus Line.Happy Belated Birthday!

Hi Mark. You've been talking a lot, especially in relation to Strixhaven and OTJ, about how some themes don't resonate well with outside of the US. I was wondering though, what are the biggest markets for Magic after the US?

Japan is the next biggest market. Then I think some European countries. I know tabletop games are super popular in Germany. I don’t know the exact order beyond #2.

In your latest Lessons article you write that fairytales are children's entertainment. While that is true today, the Brothers Grimm originally collected the fairy tales for research as part of their German language studies (They are considered the forefathers of German language studies). This collection was popular at first, but when they republished the fairytales in that fashion, it flopped, so they rewrote it for a new audience: children

I talk about how the original source material wasn’t for children in the article.

Happy birthday! Can we get some birthday trivia about you on your birthday?

Sure. I turn 56 today, so here’s fifty-six things you may or may not know about me. 1) I never lost a baby tooth. Every one had to be extracted.2) I was once a contestant on Trivial Pursuit: The Game Show with Wink Martindale. I answered the most questions correct, but didn’t win. 3) I once had scarlet fever (the thing the boy gets in the Velveteen Rabbit).4) I’ve been told by doctors I have very weird blood.5) I self taught myself to juggle.6) I was a magician when I was a kid with the stage name The Wiz Kid. I mostly performed for kids parties.7) I was once a freelance greeting card writer. My favorite (that didn’t get printed) showed a jug of maple syrup tipped on its side making a puddle of syrup. In the syrup was a top hat. A hand is pulling a can of green paint with a shamrock out of the hat. You open up the card and it says Sappy Paint Hat Tricks Day. It’s a triple Spoonerism. 8) Sara Gilbert (of “Roseanne” fame) and I once went out for lunch. (It wasn’t a date or anything.) 9) I broke my collarbone doing a prat fall off a stage. 10) I once pet a cheetah. In South Africa. My face from the picture of me doing that was used as my “Making Magic” photo for years.11) I once made a root beer float for Keanu Reeves. It was at a play I was volunteering for. 12) I once get trapped inside Fred Astaire’s Estate. This factoid is oddly on my Wikipedia page.13) Starting during the pandemic, my family began fostering animals. So far, we fostered four dogs, six cats, and two Guinea pigs.14) In college, I wrote and directed two plays, started an improvisation troupe, and a writing workshop. 15) I still have all my wisdom teeth. 16) I have visited every continent except Antarctica for Magic. 17) I once asked Clint Eastwood for directions, not realizing who it was until he started talking. I was lost on the Warner Brothers lot.18) My first job in Hollywood resulted from me taking part in someone else’s interview. I snuck on the lot, and ended walking into a room where they asked “Are you here for the production assistant interview?”, and I said, “Yes.”19) I once had a disease the doctors couldn’t identify. They called it Mark’s Disease. 20) I was born in Mississippi. My dad was in the Air Force at the time. 21) I asked out seven woman to my senior prom who all turned me down. I ended up going with a friend who also couldn’t get a date. 22) I took six years of Spanish. 23) Most of my family’s vacations growing up were ski vacations, so I’m a decent skier. 24) I once delivered a pizza to Richard Gere. It was as a production assistant, not a pizza delivery person. 25) I once broke into an actor’s apartment building to deliver a script. It was so late, they were asleep and didn’t hear the buzzing of the door bell. 26) I once drove six hours (three in each direction) to pick up one five-stick package of Blackjack gum as a runner (production assistant).27) Dennis Miller once thought I was a crazy man. I was sent to get him from the parking lot for a shoot and he thought I was stalking him.28) I have over two hundred tee-shirts. They are organized by color. 29) I was supposed to pitch to “The Simpsons”, but it got cancelled when I got hired in the “Roseanne” staff.30) I pitched multiple times to “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, but never sold a script. The closest I got was a pitch about Data malfunctioning. 31) I once ate crocodile. In Australia.32) I played the Tinman in fifth grade in a production of “The Wizard of the Oz”. I was so hot, my silver make-up had to be reapplied halfway through as I sweated it off.33) My mother turned down being on “Oprah” to come to my college graduation.34) My parents are both retired. My dad was a dentist and my mom a psychologist. I used to joke I had a “paradox”. 35) Every birthday since I was 9, I’ve celebrated my birthday with crab legs. 36) Since I was in grade school, every Valentine’s Day, I hand out candy hearts, and every Halloween, I hand out mellowcreme pumpkins (basically pumpkin shaped candy corns). 37) My tee-shirts every week are themed. Some themes are pretty obvious, but they often get tricky. R&D likes figuring out the theme. 38) I got a BS in Communications (no, really) from Boston University’s College of Communications. 39) I collect superhero Minimates (they look Lego-ish). I have somewhere around two thousand. They are displayed in a number of cabinets built by my dad.40) My podcast was inspired by a talk by Kevin Smith (at San Diego Comic-Con) where he said anyone could make a podcast. 41) I have attended over twenty-five San Diego Comic-Cons.42) I am related to Lorne Green of “Bonanza” fame. 43) My dad’s family came from Germany and my mom’s from Russia. In Germany, my family’s name was Rosenvasser, but it was changed to Rosewater when they came to the U.S.44) There are so few Rosewaters in the United States, that if you meet a Rosewater odds are I’m related to them.45) I have lived in five states (Mississippi, Ohio, Massachusetts, California, and Washington, in that order).46) I have visited over thirty states for Magic. 47) I once met Jim Henson when I worked on a clip show that Kermit was on. The question I asked him was if Ernie and Bert were named after the characters from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. He said not consciously. Jim Henson is one of my idols and I feel so blessed to have met him. He died a few months later.48) I met Stan Lee at Hascon. He is another of my idols that I feel so lucky to have met. 49) On “Roseanne”, I worked with Amy Sherman-Palladino (just Amy Sherman back then) and Chuck Lorre. She made “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. He made “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men”. Amy was super sweet and we got along well. I don’t think Chuck liked me.50) I am a super picky eater. For example, except for apples, I don’t eat fruit. I hate bananas with a passion. 51) I have been a game player since very young. My dad loves games and introduced them to me early in life.52) I get the writing bug from my mom. 53) I used to collect lint in a giant jar. When I got married, Lora made me get rid of it. It was an impressive amount of lint.54) I have a bad tendency to burn myself a lot. My family loves to make fun of it. 55) I own over fifty flannels. My favorites are from Japan because they are more colorful with their flannels. Normally I wear a large, but in Japanese sizes, I’m an extra large.56) My favorite number is 254. I chose it when I was little.

"As long as words with capital letters in the card title start with the same letter, it will work." Unfortunately, Spanish, French and German don't capitalize most words in a Magic card like English does. I suggest this be ruled differently for these languages, or it will be pretty much impossible to ever accomplish. These languages still have alliteration and it's a shame that the spirit of the card is ruled out by English-centric requirements.

If there is no capitalization, just use starting letters.

Can you elaborate on the problems you had with "Legendary Artifact Creature — Equipment Jellyfish" that will prevent it in the future? That sounds interesting!

There’s a whole bunch of issues. I’ll point out one. We normally keep a limit to font size because when we translate into certain other languages (German being the biggest issue, I believe) the text can get longer.

Isn't Wurm just worm in German?

A Wurm is a wingless Dragon. A Worm is a worm, although sometimes a very big one.

Has there been a German inspired plane yet? If not, can I request one?

Parts of Eldraine have a German origin.

How do you approach the possibility of non native people asking you questions? I've personally not sent so many questions because I know my language is way more direct than English and feared that it may sound harsh while in German it would be perfectly fine.

I obviously am only able to answer in English, but I’m happy to hear from people from all countries. Feel free to point out that English isn’t your first language if you’re concerned about it.

Re: "We print in 11 languages" Actually, if you include obscure promos from the past, there are actually 18 languages that Magic cards can potentially be: Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Classic Greek, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Phyrexian, Pig Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, and Spanish.

A fine piece of trivia.