Peter Sagal, who you know from Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, recently recorded a new commentary on the imaginary people we grow up with. Some day, alas, Viggo Mortensen will (presumably) pass away, but the Aragorns we know through Lord of the Rings games (Sagal mentions LOTRO) don’t have to. And, of course, we can make the king return whenever we like by turning the pages of Tolkien’s books. Does this mean we don’t have to outgrow things if we don’t want to?

It aired on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday, and you can catch it online now. An excerpt:

I’m raising children now — a challenge, by the way, on which J.R.R. Tolkien sheds no light at all — and I see them drawn to the flickering, dimly lit holes leading from our house to the other worlds — the TVs and movies and computer games — and I can understand the almost overwhelming urge to crawl through. But I also wonder if, like me, when they grow up and have to say farewell to childish things, they’ll have nothing real to let go of.

Thoughts?