Monopoly

I love playing Monopoly. It's so unrealistic. It's awesome. Playing with my family is especially fun. A few days ago, we played for the first time in quite a while. We had to review the rules, once again, for things like buying houses and auctions. The one thing I love about Monopoly is the fact that every single family in America probably has a different way to play it. It's sort of like spaghetti. (I should explain. I've always said that the major difference between different mothers' cooking is how they make spaghetti. I myself can actually tell a lot about a family based on what the mother's spaghetti tastes like. It's seriously like an unofficial social litmus test.) Some families play according to the description of the free parking space: you get nothing when you land on it. Other families play with the free parking space as a jackpot, with all the fines from the game so far going into the pot in the middle of the board. One thing I think is really cool about Monopoly is all the outside deals you can make. "I'll give you Marvin Gardens if you promise not to charge me rent for the next five times I land on your properties." "I'll trade you this 'get out of jail free' card and a hundred bucks for immunity on all your properties with houses on them." That's just plain fun. It's really funny, though, to see someone trying desperately to trade with some other person who doesn't want to trade anything. I saw that first hand when we played a few nights ago. *poking the person constantly* "Hey... hey... hey... hey... hey... hey... give me some money for this." "No! For the last time, I don't want the waterworks! Stop bothering me!" Cheating is also really fun in Monopoly. (Oh, right, like you've never taken advantage of being the banker. You can't judge me until you've taken the huge stack of 500's out of your own eye.) It's not like other games, where you feel really cheap and guilty, you know, like chess or taxes. I highly recommend playing Monopoly with your family. Right now. Go!