Potluck Quote of the Day: Howard Zinn on Monopoly

Greetings to those of you in Germany, Spain and Australia........as well as to those of you who might just be checking us out on your wi fi from Ozo Coffee Pearl in Boulder, Colo., where perhaps you are reading a print edition of "Boulder Weekly" or from Publik Coffee in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah...........

Tonight, we start a series of quotes from noteworthy people, both alive and dead, who made contributions to society (yes, we will not quote Charles Manson, but Marilyn Manson is a possibility).

And, we start with the late very progressive scholar Howard Zinn (1922-2010). Once you read this quip, you will understand why we went with a Monopoly game board; Scrooge McDuck was out alternative choice.

Here is the quote from Zinn:

"Capitalism has always been a failure for the lower classes. It is now beginning to fail for the middle classes."




 https://www.publikcoffee.com/#/locations

http://www.ozocoffee.com

http://www.boulderweekly.com/

 

Last Ten Films We've Seen (earlier in June): James Franco Directs

Greetings to our blog readers in Australia, Canada (Happy Canada Day), and Norway......

Today, we look at ten films we've recently watched. Many of them, like "The Lifeguard,""Cold in July" and "Before I Disappear"were independent films shown at the Sundance Film Festival. James Franco did in fact direct "As I Lay Dying," a film based on a William Faulkner novel, and it was almost an artistic success.

Perhaps, the most unique film on the list is "Blume in Love," a Hollywood studio with a highly controversial plot twist that would assure the film would not be made, at least by a studio, today.

The Turkish film "Destiny," which is on this list, was not released in the United State.

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine http://www.filmcomment.com

The images above are in reference to 1) "The Lifeguard" (though the film has nothing to do with "Baywatch"), 2) David Copperfield, the magician, is something we thought of for "Before I Disappear," but the film is not about a magician, and 3) perhaps, most confusing, we went with an image of a Maine lobster for "Cold in July" because Maine is one of the few places we can think of where it is actually cold in July (the film takes place in Texas).

Here is the list:

1. Hateship/Loveship. director: Liza Johnson. 2013. w/ Kristen Wiig

2. As I Lay Dying. dir: James Franco. 2013

3. The Lifeguard. Liza W. Garcia. 2013 w/ Kristen Bell

4. HairBrained. Billy Kent. 2013 2/Parker Posey

5. Blume in Love. Paul Mazursky. 1975. w/ George Segal

6. Destiny ("Kader"). Turkey. Zeki Demirkubuz. 2006.

7. Before I Disappear. Shawn Christensen. 2014

8. Cold in July. Jim Mickle. 2014 w/ Michael C. Hall

9. Force Majuere. Sweden. Ruben Ostlund. 2014

10. Sister. Switzerland. Ursula Meier. 2012.

Greetings to our blog readers in England, Pakistan and Malaysia......

Happy 89th birthday to the great Mel Brooks.......

Today, we look at our top ten favorite comic strips from "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va.

The winner is Stephan Pastis, of "Pearls Before Swine" fame, whom like Jerry Seinfeld did on sitcom television, makes brilliant fun of every day annoying occurrences, like people trying to start a second line for the same bank teller (Image #1: a piggy bank is in reference to the strip).

Second place goes to Dave Coverly's "Speed Bump" in which a third cave man makes stone drawings with his food which seemingly irritates his mates. Our initial choice for an image to go with this was "Captain Caveman," but we couldn't find a suitable image.

Lastly, third place goes to Darby Conley's "Get Fuzzy" in which Satchel the Dog sees a headline in a newspaper that Australia nearly executed Johnny Depp's dogs. We will send Javier the Intern to verify if this actually did happen.

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Speed Bump

3. Get Fuzzy

4. Non Sequitur

5. Doonesbury

6. Dilbert

7. Jump Start

8. Agnes

9. Garfield

10. Zits

http://www.gocomics.com

Our Top Ten Comics from Sunday, Dec. 14th Washington Post: Bill Cosby Had a VERY Bad Year

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Sweden and Australia......

Today, we focus on our ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post"(Sunday, Dec. 14th edition). For those of you in Kazakhstan who may have never been to America, Sunday is the day when color comic strips are posted in newspapers and web sites, such as http://www.gocomics.com

"The Washington Post" has substantially more comics than small-town newspapers like "The Register and Bee" in Danville, Va. And, there are comic strips for virtually every demographic, including "Reply All" (young women), "Baldo" (Hispanics), "Mark Trail" (children) and "Beetle Bailey" (Republican senior citizens men with hearing airs...........our apologies to Mort Walker).

Darrin Bell's "Candorville" is our top comic strip of the week for the first time in the survey (there are over 30 comic strips in the Sunday Post) when the title character, an African-American man presumably in his late twenties, overhears two school children talking about why their parents don't want them to watch "The Cosby Show." For those of you in Uzbekistan, there are some serious criminal allegations aimed at Bill Cosby (pictured top), a former stand-up comic and sitcom star.

"Candorville" is followed closely by "Pearls Before Swine" in which Rat declares that he wants to be president of the United States so he can aim drones to spy on every living person on earth. Of course, if he were running as a Republican for Congress in South Carolina, he could say something that outlandish and get elected as Congs. Joe Wilson and Mark Sanford, two of the most dubious members of Congress, did on Election Day (forgive the political commentary).

We used "Three Little Pigs" as our image for "Pearls" because Pig is one of the three major characters in the strip (Goat is the third).

Third place went to "Speed Bump," which depicts a medieval jousting the age of social media.

And, in fourth place, there was a hilarious look at Star Wars fanatics in Keith Kinght's "Knight Life," in which guys dressed like Storm Troopers are camping out for tickets to the next Star Wars film, which is due out next year.

Here is our top ten:

1. Candorville

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Speed Bump

4. Knight Life

5. Lio

6. WUMO

7. The Argyle Sweater

8. Dustin

9. Prickly City

10. Doonesbury

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.gocommic.com

Last Ten Films I Saw Before the Last Ten Films I've Seen: Reexaming Freddy Krueger

Greetings to our blog readers from New Zealand, Poland and Egypt.

The images above are of: 1) Freddy Krueger from 'The Nightmare on Elm Street' film series, he is now a Republican congressman from Alabama, 2) Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who will soon be starring in a reality tv show about narcissists. The film "The Fifth Estate" is about him and 3) well, it's just a human skeleton (we are using it for the movie "The Skeleton Twins," which stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig).

1) "Mean Streets." 1973. dir: Martin Scorsese

2) "Nightmare on Elm Street." 1984. dir: Wes Craven

3) "Yeelen." Mali. 1987. dir: Souelymane Cisse

4) "Rush." 2013. dir: Ron Howard.

5) "The Fifth Estate." 2013. dir: Bill Condon.

6) "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One" (documentary/experimental film). 1968. dir: William Greaves (alas the director died this year)

7) "Don's Party." Australia (in English). 1976. dir: Bruce Beresford.

8) "Labor Day" 2013. dir: Jason Reitman (with Kate Winslet)

9) "The Skeleton Twins."2014  dir: Craig Johnson.

10) "Frank." Ireland (in English) 2014. dir: Lenny Abrahamson

World Cup Lists: MLS Players

There are a number of futbolers in the World Cup who play in Major League Soccer, a pro soccer league consisting of mostly American teams along with three Canadian squads. Not all of these soccer players are Americans.

Here is the list:

1) Julio Cesar. 34. Brazil. FC Toronto (yes, I guess we all know he had a bad day at the office on Tuesday; pict. top)

2) Tim Cahill. 34. Australia. New York Red Bulls. (pict. center)

3) Kyle Beckerman. 32. USA. Real Salt Lake (pict. bottom)

4) Oswaldo Minda. 30. Ecuador. Chivas USA (Los Angeles)

5) Omar Gonzels. 25. USA. L.A. Galaxy

6) Brad Davis. 32. USA. Houston Dynamo.

7) Steven Beitashour. 27. Iran. Vancouver Whitecaps (The player actually grew up in Calif., he is also an American citizen.)

8) Victor Bernardez. 32. Honduras. San Jose Earthquakes.

9) Waylon Francis. 23. Costa Rica. Columbus Crew.

10) Giancarlo Gonzalez. 26. Costa Rica. Columbus Crew.

11) Matt Besler. 27. USA. Sporting Kansas City.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/

The Olympics Lists (10 of 10): The Medalists

Greetings to everyone around the world; I'm Bob Costas and you're not (yes, we are making fun of Chevy Chase's signature line from the early days of 'Saturday Night Live.').

Here is our last list:

1) Erin Hamlin. (pictured top). 27. USA. Women's Luge. Won bronze.

2) Denis Ten (pictured center) 20. Kazakhstan. Men's Figure Skating. Won bronze.

3) Torah Bright (pictured bottom). 27. Australia. Women's Snowboarding. Won Silver. Resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.

4) Pierre Vaultier. 26. France. Men's Snowboarding. Won gold.

5) Lizzy Yarnold. 25. Great Britain. Women's Skeleton. Won gold.

6) Alexander Treitakov. 28. Russia. Men's Skeleton. Won gold.

7) Alla Tesper. 34. Belarus. Women's Free-style Skiing. Won gold.

8) Zbiginew Brodka. 29. Poland. Men's Speed-skating. Won gold.

9) Carina Vogt. 24. Germany. Women's Ski-jumping. Won gold.

10) Matthias Mayer. 23. Austria. Men's Alpine. Won gold.

http://www.nbcolympics.com

http://www.sochi2014.com/en

Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: The Scream

Greetings to our blog readers in Egypt, Poland and Australia.

Today, the Danish comic strip "WUMO" wins our survey for the best comic strips in "The Washington" with a brilliant satire of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's legendary painting "The Scream."

We also enjoyed today's "Lio," by Mark Tatulli, in which the title character plays a nifty gag on his father, and "The Argyle Sweater," which features a cool satire of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

Here is our top ten:

1. WUMO

2. Lio

3. The Argyle Sweater

4. Speed Bump

5. Dustin

6. Pearls Before Swine

7. Knight Life

8. Reply All

9. Judge Parker

10. Prickly City

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

To see our top ten from "The Roanoke Times," go to: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

DC Week (7 of 8): Meet Rudolf Bekink and the Other Chief Diplomats

We are continuing our look at ambassadors who serve their respective countries in Washington, DC, the other chief diplomats at http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Here is our list, the year the ambassador began their American mission is in parentheses:

1. Netherlands/Holland, Rudolf Bekink (pict. top with Barack Obama) (2012)

2. Canada, Gary Doer (2009)

3.South Africa, Ebrahim Rasool  (2010)

4. Brazil, Mauro Vieria (2010)

5. Sweden, Jonas Hafstrom (2007)

6. Australia, (mr) Kim Beazley (pict. bottom) (2010)

7. France, Francois Delattre (2011)

8. Japan, Kenichiro Sasae  (2012)

9. Italy, Claudio Bisogneiro (2013)

10. Germany, Peter Ammon (2011)

http://www.washdiplomat.com/

http://dc.the-netherlands.org/

http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/

Image to Fill Space: A Dalmation

Greetings to our blog readers in Senegal, South Africa, Honduras, Jamaica, Chile, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Australia, Japan, France, Iceland, Bulgaria and Slovenia.

Tomorrow, we shall have something more substantive.

Blogging in 3.5 minutes of Less_ The Six Largest 'Cities' in Wyoming

Greetings to our blog readers in Mexico, New Zealand and Peru.

We wrote 'Cities' as opposed to Cities in the header because most 'cities' in Wyoming have a low population unlike major cities.

We found out today that the state flower of Wyoming is the Castilleja Linuriifolia (hurray, it looks like we spelled it right; cartoonist Keith Knight calls these things 'life's little victories).

This flower will be in view at the upcoming Crested Butte Wildflwoer Festival in Crested Butte, Colo., from July 8-14th.
 
Here are the six largest 'cities' in Wyoming, a state where it is very difficult for Democrats to win elections; it is after all the home state of Dick Cheney (biting my tongue):

1. Cheyenne (the capital) 59,446

2. Casper 55, 316

3. Laramie 30,816

4. Gillette 29, 087

5. Rock Springs 23, 036

6. Sheridan 17,444

SIDEBAR: Since we are, for some reason, popular in El Salvador, I wanted to congratulate their under-21 national soccer team for stunning Australia 1-0 in Trabzon, Turkey, yesterday, where the U-21 World Cup match was played.

http://www.crestedbuttewildflowerfestival.com

http://www.wyomingtourism.org

http://www.colorado.com

http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com

http://www.knightlifecomic.com

Turkey: The Land of the Hijab and the Bikini

Alas, as a Turkish-American, I fear that tourists will opt to gaze upon the bodies of attractive young women in bikinis in the Greek island of Kos as opposed to the Turkish resort of Bodrum which is a mere three miles away from Kos, due to riots and unrest in Istanbul and other Turkish cities, including Ankara and Izmir.

Turkey is a land caught between the Hijab and the Bikini, and Islamist conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose regime is at the center of the chaos, has manipulated his conservative base in central Anatolian cities, like Yozgat, Konya and Sivas, to counter the protests even as it is likely to further divide the country and cost Turkey millions of lost revenue in the tourism sector.

The BBC is reporting that a lone standing man who stood alone in silence in Taksim Square earlier in the day in Istanbul has become a symbol for the Turkish people in their collective stand against an oppressive government. He has been identified as 'The Standing Man of Istanbul."

With that in mind, we are looking at what exactly the definitions of the hijab and the bikini are, as well as the ever intriguing burqini fashion trend in the Muslim world, which we suspect might be popular along the beaches of Dubai and Algeria:

Hijab: A veil which covers the head which is particularly worn by a Muslim female beyond puberty in the presence of non-related adult males.

Bikini: This is a type of women's two-piece swimsuit designed to provide minimal coverage of the body. One part covers the breasts and the part that covers the groin and part or the entire buttocks.

Burqini: A swimsuit for Muslim women designed by Lebanese Australian Ahena Zametti. The suit covers the whole body, except the hands, feet and face,

http://www.kosinfo.gr/

http://www.bodrum.org

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" which features the same topic, but different text and images)

Where's Billy Bragg?

Somehow, we can't imagine that folk/rock singer Billy Bragg, also a left-wing activist, is one of Newt Gingrich's favorite singers. And, we certainly can't imagine Bragg would be in the former arch conservative house speaker's I-POD. But, several years, a right-wing prime minister of Australia said he was a big fan of Midnight Oil, a band known for their progressive politics as much as their awesome songs like "Beds Are Burning."

Tonight, Bragg is performing at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, a city that is still recovering from a bombing incident at the end of the Boston Marathon. We personally can't imagine a better way to get away from it all than listening to Bragg, who in our views gives awesome concerts.

From Boston, he heads to the Southgate House Revival in Newport, Kentucky, on Tuesday.

Bragg then headlines at the  Ark in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wed.,which is also home to WBCN, the student run radio station that was recently featured in a "Jeopardy" category because apparently the late Gilda Radner, an original cast member of "Saturday Night Live" got her start there.

Then Bragg, a British singer who was recognized earlier in his career for his outspokenness about the recently deceased Margaret Thatcher,  heads north to Canada for gigs in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.


This entry is a slight take-off on "Where's Waldo?"

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/

http://www.wbcn.org

http://www.theark.org

http://www.southgatehouse.com

http://www.whereswaldo.com

The Finish Line_ Track, Rhythmic Gymnastics and Volleyball

The 2012 London Olympics have been finished for close to 48 hours, but we are finally catching up with them in this our final entry regarding the successful summer games.

1) Let's start with Australian track star Sally Pearson, 25,  (pictured top) who won gold in the 100-meters hurdles. It has to be one of the most challenging track and field events, after pole vault. In her field, Pearson was able to win over stiff competition finish less than a second faster that even sixth place finisher Phylicia George of Canada. Pearson had won silver in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and she beat out American Dawn Harper, the gold winner from the '08 games, who finished with silver in London. Kellie Wells, also of the United States, got bronze. There was an essential tie between Lolo Jones (USA, fourth) and Nevin Yanit (Turkey, fifth).

2) Though the Soviet Union had won three gold medals in men's volleyball, Russia has only managed silver and bronze. But, that changed in London. Thanks to the 31 points from Dmitriy Muserskiy who scored 31 points in the final, which was a come-from-behind upset over Brazil (19-25, 20-25, 29-27, 25-22, 15-9). The oldest member of Team Russia is Sergey Tetyukhin (pictured center), 36. He was on the Russian team which won silver in 2000, followed by the bronze medal teams from 2004 and 2008.

3) Though Israel did not win any Olympic medals, Neta Rivkin, 21, (pictured below) put in an impressive performance which earned her seventh place in the all-around competition, which was won by Russian Yevgeniya Kanayeva. Rivkin is the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants; she won the first world medal ever for Israel in the sport when she won individual bronze in the hoop competition at the world championships in France in 2011. In 2008, she was the youngest member of the Israeli delegation at the Beijing Olympics at age 17.

http://www.politicsandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (sister blog)

http://www.smh.com.au/

http://www.timesofisrael.com

http://www.russiavolley.com

Quote of the Day- Charlton Heston

Today, we quote the late actor Charlton Heston (1923-2008), as we continue quoting actors who played real-life presidents. Heston had the distinction of playing three presidents: One as Andrew Jackson, the seventh American president, in the feature film "The Buccaneer" * (1959, dir: Anthony Quinn) and he played Thomas Jefferson in the tv movie "The Patriots" and later in life he played Abraham Lincoln in the tv mini-series "The Great Battles of the Civil War."

Today, on our other blog, we have a quote from Nick Nolte who played Jefferson in the 1995 film "Jefferson in Paris." 

The following quote is a bit ironic in that Heston was not only one of the few Republicans in Hollywood, he also became a right-wing icon when he headed the controversial, but powerful gun lobbying group The National Rifle Organization (NRA). Here is indeed referring to a president who was a Democrat:

"Jackson was one of my favorite presidents. One mean son of a bitch."

*-Heston actually plays a young Gen. Andrew Jackson in the film

SIDEBAR: In sports, we mentioned the Durham Bulls, a popular minor league baseball team in Durham, NC, a few nights ago. Well, as it turns out, they did finish their series against the Rochester Red Wings in spite of their home game being rained out on Saturday. On Monday night, the Bulls beat the Red Wings 4-0 as shortstop Tim Beckham and outfielder Jose Feliciano hit a pair of doubles in a game which saw a much-heralded Australian prospect Liam Hendricks (7-1) taking the mound for the visitors.

http://www.charltonhestonworld.homestead.com

http://www.twitter.com/durhambulls

Olympics Cities Destination Quiz (4 of 6) Melbourne-Munich

Today, we continue our Olympics Cities Destination quiz series in honor of the 2012 London Olympics, which start on July 29th, with a look at how far Melbourne, Australia, and Munich, Germany, are.

Apologies to our international audience as we are doing this in miles.

Melbourne hosted the 1956 Olympics, which were the first ones held in Australia. They are one of  only two  summer games where athletic events were held outside the host country as equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden; the other games where an event took place away from the home was 1920 Antwerp Olympics in Belgium, in which yachting events were held in neighboring Holland.

Some of the highlights of the Melbourne games were Australian men's swimmer Murray Rose (1939-2012) who died in April winning three gold medals; his teammate Dawn Fraser (pictured above) won two gold medals for the host country.

Munich hosted the 1972 Olympics which were greatly overshadowed by tragedy as Palestinian terrorist took 11 Israeli coaches and athletes hostage and later killed them in what became known as the Munich Massacre.

But, there were also tremendous athletic accomplishments in then-West Germany as American men's swimmer Mark Spitz, now 62, won seven gold medals which was recently surpassed by Michael Phelps.

Similarly, women's Soviet/Belarusian gymnast Olga Korbut, now 57, won three gold medals while also performing a ground-breaking backward somersault on the balance beam.

 Korbut was on a 1996 postage champ issued by the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan; she now lives in Arizona.

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (2 of 6)_ Mexico City to Rome

Well, we couldn't find a mascot for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, but Pique the chilli pepper was the mascot for the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico 18 years later (Argentina won that cup).

Since 1968 was a year of political turmoil in the United States, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, China, Argentina....ok, you get the idea, there were two major political protests at the Olympics in Mexico City. In America, the most-known protest involved two African-American athletes Tommie Smith, now 68, who won gold in the 200 meter relay, and John Carlos, now 67, who gave the black power salute during the playing of the American national anthem at their medal ceremony. Interestingly enough, the silver medal winner in that race the late Australian runner Peter Norman (1942-2006) politically supported the protests.

The Mexico City Olympics, which featured athletes from 112 countries, also featured a protest from Czechoslavakian gymnast Vera Caslavska (who would now compete for the Czech Republic), now age 70, a winner of four gold medals at the games who bowed her head in protest when the Soviet Union's national anthem was played after the balance beam final.

The 1960 Rome Olympics were also quite eventful as two African-American athletes came home with gold medals including the late Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) who won three gold medals in track, and Muhammad Ali who won gold in the light heavyweight boxing class.

So how far in Mexico City from Rome?

Is the answer:

A) 6,273 miles

B) 6,373 miles

C) 6,473 miles

D) 6,573 miles

The answer to yesterday's quiz is that "Hogan's Heroes" ran for 166 episodes.

Congratulations to the University of Alabama for Winning Gymnastics Title

Yes, college gymnastics fans will undoubtedly notice that the headline and the photo of Georgia gymnast Kat Ding, a senior from Sparks, Nev., may not seem to go well, but please read the entry first!

And, before we get to that, I forgot to thank blog readers from Belgium, Portugal and Australia on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire,' in addition to them, I want to thank those of you from Bulgaria and Indonesia who have stopped by here in the last 24 hours.

The University of Alabama did indeed win its seventh NCAA championship in women's gymnastics on April 21, and this was the first time that the Crimson Tide had successfully defended its title.

For Tide senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, it must have been a particularly rewarding weekend for she also won an individual title on the balance beam.

Meanwhile, Ding defender her national title on bars with a 9.875 and she had a 9.995 on floor, which gave her a title on that apparatus as well; Ding edged out Stack-Eaton, the defending floor champ, and Ellyse Hopfner-Hobbs of UCLA, who is perhaps the top Canadian gymnast in the world at the moment.

Kyra Hunter of Florida won both the coveted all-around title as well as an apparatus title on vault. The Gators finished a very close second to the Tide in the team competition with the Bruins of UCLA coming in a close third.

Next year, UCLA hosts the NCAA championships in the sport.

Top 10 Countries to Run To If GOP Whacko Becomes Prez

We will probably have better things to do on March 5th, when the remaining Republican candidates have yet another debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif. One of those even better things to do might be to watch a marathon of the British '70s sitcom "Are You Being Served?" (the show airs on PBS stations in North Carolina on Saturday nights at 9:30 p.m.) on dvd.

Here is a list of possible countries to run to if the likes of Rick Santorum (pictured), Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich becomes president:

1. Norway (pictured)

2. Argentina

3. Australia

4. Honduras

5. Chile

6. Greece

7. Denmark (yes, we like the idea of seeking political asylum in a Scandinavian country)

8. Canada (yeah, this is a bit of an easy choice)

9. Croatia

10. Poland

Yeah, we aren't quite zany enough to put North Korea on this list.

Casulaties of Modern Technology_ Board Games

By no means is Monopoly a thing of the past, as one might infer from my heading. However, it is a safe assumption that most children of today prefer to play advanced video games with their friends as opposed to board games. Monopoly board games are still made today as our the likes of Trivial Pursuit and Clue.

According to Wikipedia, Monopoly was first played in 1904, and it was originally called The Landlord's Game. In 1934, Charles Darrow presented his own version of The Landlord's Game to various executives, and by the Christmas of 1935, Monopoly games were being sold throughout the United States.

Monopoly consists of three Chance spaces, four railroads, including the Reading Railroad, and a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.

Traditional American versions of Monopoly are based on streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since the '30s, the names of several streets have changed including Illinois Avenue which became Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the 1980s.

There are also popular college versions of Monopoly, including ones for the University of Alabama (pictured), Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina.

In addition, there are international versions in many countries including South Korea, Japan and Russia. In the Australian version of Monopoly, a koala bear is one of the silver pieces.

There is also a periodic World Championship of Monopoly, which was last played in Las Vegas in 2009. The tournament was won by Bjorn Halvard Knappska from Norway.

Many parodies, including some that are unauthorized by Hasboro, the company which now makes Monopoly games, have surfaced over the years. Of these, the most recognized and infamous is perhaps Ghettopoly, which was released in 2003.

In Ghettopoly, railroads are replaced by liquor stores and a handgun is among the silver pieces. Hasbro successfully sued to prevent the game from being sold on the open market on the grounds of copyright infringement. The NAACP also found the game to be highly offensive.

As a result, the limited editions of Ghettopoly fetch between $120-300 on the Internet.

SIDEBAR: One of my favorite sports, women's college gymnastics, will be starting again soon. The University of Alabama, which was mentioned earlier in this piece, has the reigning NCAA title-winning team this year. They open their 2012 season at home on January 13th against their arch rivals from the University of Georgia at 7:30 p.m local time (8:30 p.m., eastern time).

The University of Georgia's team, which are also known as the Gym Dawgs (Georgia's athletic teams are officially called Bulldogs), has also won numerous NCAA titles in women's gymnastics, and the meets between the two schools frequently sell out.

Among the standout gymnasts for the Alabama Crimson Tide are junior Marissa Guiterrez and senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, who were key components of the team's national championship effort. For the Gym Dawgs, top gymnasts include senior standouts Kat Ding and Gina Nuccio.

The preseason national rankings have Alabama ranked second behind UCLA; Georgia is ranked ninth. The other SEC team in the top ten is the University of Florida; the Gators are ranked third.