Big angora-covered cubes came in the postwar hot-rod boom.

Matt: Who invented fuzzy dice? — Dennis, San Diego

Same guy that put the ram in the rama-lama ding-dong. Which is to say, who knows? Dice themselves go waaay back. Personkind might have developed written language sooner had we not been so busy shooting craps. We added the fuzz sometime in the 1930s or ’40s, around the time the mob built Las Vegas. There’s a connection between the two, but not one that’s been documented. Big angora-covered cubes were mandatory car accessories in the postwar hot-rod boom. Tumbling dice caught the free-spirited, vaguely dangerous James Deanishness of the times. So what does it say about us today, with those reeking pasteboard pine trees dangling from the rear-view? Live for today, because tomorrow you might not smell so good? Rumor has it the sorry-looking pine trees are losing popularity to those king-of-the-road, fake gold-and-velvet crowns, suitable for dashboard or rear deck, which also dispense air freshener. Well, I suppose that’s better than fuzzy Tec 9s.