Saturday, April 25, 2009

coat perfect fits



My poem yesterday was about Monopoly pieces. I still need to do the wheelbarrow, the shoe and the cannon, and spruce up the top hat.

I’ve never enjoyed Monopoly. It takes too long and it’s mean spirited. Nevertheless, on those occasions when I’ve had my arm twisted, my parental guilt stirred, or just lacked an excuse for not being available, I usually choose one of the homier tokens to be me on the board, ie the wheelbarrow, the shoe or the thimble. Of course, pyschologically, this reveals my lack of ambition. I never want to be the cannon because it’s obnoxious. And the iron, although among the homey pieces, looks too fragile. I’m lukewarm on the others. I read on the Hasbro site that the race car was voted the all-time favorite piece. Keep in mind the people who vote on that are the people who like Monopoly.

After the selection of the totem vehicle, Monopoly falls apart for me. It’s no fun unless you’re winning. And if you find winning Monopoly a pleasure, you’re something of a sadist.

When I moved to Germany it was disturbing to find out how the Monopoly street names were German streets! No more Marvin Gardens, no Park Place, no Baltic Avenue. This shouldn’t have surprised me, but it made the game all the less appealing. I mean, if I couldn’t visit the old haunts…

3 comments:

Dominic Rivron said...

I hate to admit it, but when I was in my early 20s some friends and I got positively obsessed with Monopoly - for a while. We even invented an international version. You get two boards (each from a different country) and turn Free Parking into (for example) "Go to Paris" or "Go to London". It makes the game much, much longer! The stuff of nightmares, looking back...

SarahJane said...

well, as long as you were still friends after that...

BJeronimo said...

I played with my sisters and mother on rainy days. Being the youngest and only boy no one cared much beyond the Kool-Aid and Oreos enough so I usually won.

I was the dog. We had a schnauzer (Fluff) growing up.

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