QUARANTINE BLOG # 204

October 20, 2020

This morning we begin with a heads-up for all of you art lovers out there who want to add to your collection.  Christie’s is offering a massive Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at auction today.   Known as “Stan,” the specimen is 67 million years old.  Stan’s skeleton stands at 13 feet high and 40 feet long.  Comprising 188 original bones, it is one of the few completely assembled skeletons of its kind.  It was unearthed in the late 1980s at Hell Creek Formation, located between South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.  Evaluations from scientists reveal details from the animal’s life.  It survived various wounds inflicted by members of its own species.  Stan is expected to fetch between $6 million to $8 million.  

👉  When polls of favorite board games are taken, one game is sure to make the list, and frequently it is #1 on that list.  The game?  Monopoly.  Love it or hate it, Monopoly is a very popular game with variations played around the world (in England, Boardwalk and Park Place are Mayfair and Park Lane).

Everyone knows the goal of Monopoly.  Dominate industry, control property, maximize profit, and drive competitors to bankruptcy.  It has long symbolized the centrality and celebration of capitalism in the United States.  But few realize that Monopoly evolved from an earlier ANTI-capitalist game.  

In the 1800s millions of people lived in poverty while the rich  controlled most property and paid almost no taxes.  Reformer Henry George proposed remedying these inequalities with a single tax on land.  Many followers, including the family of Elizabeth Magie, embraced his ideas.  Magie’s love for games inspired a uniquely playful way to spread Henry George’s philosophies.  Her innovative Landlord’s Game design required that players travel a path, buying or paying rent on properties.  Whenever players had to pay rent or go to jail (after landing on “Lord Blueblood’s” estate) they learned about the unfairness in inequalities in land ownership.  

When friends taught Philadelphian Charles Darrow the game on a hand-drawn board, he asked them to write down the game’s rules.  He soon drew and painted his own version on a round oilcloth board and produced paper property cards. 

Out of work because of the Great Depression, Darrow began producing copies of Monopoly in his home.  He and his family hand-colored the boards, typed the property cards, and used wood molding for houses.  He labeled inexpensive necktie boxes and sold the games through Wanamaker’s Philadelphia department store.  

Darrow pitched Monopoly to Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, claiming to be the game’s creator.  Both turned him down, believing the game was too complex to have a broad market appeal.  However, as Darrow’s sales figures grew, Parker Brothers changed their mind and bought the rights from Darrow.  It was only after Parker Brothers had signed the deal with Darrow that they discovered the earlier patents for The Landlord’s Game.  When Parker Brothers approached Lizzie Magie Phillips, she refused any changes to her original game.  Lizzie sold her patent to Parker Brothers for $500 and no royalties.  Instead, she had this one key condition: in addition to publishing Monopoly, Parker Brothers must also publish the unaltered version of The Landlord’s Game.

Parker Brothers honored that agreement and manufactured a small production run of The Landlord’s Game.  However, publicly they promoted the story of Charles Darrow as the inventor of Monopoly.  Maybe they were saving face and didn’t want to admit that they had been duped by Darrow.  Maybe it was easier to market Monopoly with the Darrow myth than with the real story of a Quaker woman trying to demonstrate the evils of land ownership.  Today Parker Brothers prints $30 billion of Monopoly money every year.

And that’s Monopoly.  Now, go directly to Jail.  Do not pass Go.  Do not collect $200.

👉  Today is National Suspenders Day, an accessory made of straps of fabric or leather that cross over a wearer's shoulders and hold up their pants.  In Britain they are known as braces.  Outside the United States the term suspenders refers to a garter belt.

Modern day suspenders were invented in 1820 by Albert Thurston, and their popularity has waxed and waned since then.  Mark Twain received an early patent for suspenders in 1871.  Suspenders lost some popularity following World War I, where men had become used to wearing belts with their uniforms.  Although suspenders have not rivaled the belt for decades, there has been some resurgence in recent years.

When we pastored the Church of God in Beckley WV, a member, who always wore suspenders, gave me a pair.  He told me, “They are good for every day and for going to meeting.”  He meant wearing them to church.  In one of our 9 or 10 moves since then, I’ve lost them.  If you have a pair, celebrate for me.

👉   One of my favorite comic panels is “Family Circus.”  Here is a quartet from Bill and Jeff Keane:

👉  Today’s close is by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, known as Dean Stanley, who died in 1881, was an English Anglican priest, ecclesiastical historian, and powerful preacher of his day.  These are old words, but they bring a new message to our troubled times.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21 KJV).

Come, in this accepted hour;

Bring Thy heavenly kingdom in;

Fill us with Thy glorious power,

Rooting out the seeds of sin.

– Charles Wesley

If we wish to overcome evil, we must overcome it by good.  There are doubtless many ways of overcoming the evil in our own hearts, but the simplest, easiest, most universal, is to overcome it by active occupation in some good word or work. 

The best antidote against evil of all kinds, against the evil thoughts which haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have.  Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words, and prayers, and deeds.  Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. 

Fix your affections on things above, and then you will be less and less troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.

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