An egg timer?

I came across a mention of Dungeons & Dragons in an old issue of the science fiction/fantasy comic anthology published by Marvel Comics in the 1980s called Epic Illustrated.  The description of D&D is in a column called Gameview by Steven Grant that is sort of an overview of fantasy and sci-fi gaming, and I have to quote part of it for you:

"The game [Dungeons & Dragons] is played with a rule book, an egg timer, an unusual pair of dice, and the imagination of the players."

Egg timer?  The rest of the review is pretty spot-on, talking about how "survivors of one game simply take their characters on to a new level."  The game was still relatively obscure when this issue came out in June 1981, so the author might not be familiar with how D&D is played, but where the hell did the egg timer come from?