Once Again, It’s … Jolly Monday!!!

Posted on by under Humour, Politic-Free Mondays

Good Monday morning, friends … come in where it’s warm!  I hope you all had a fun-filled weekend, or at least a relaxing one.  You guys are looking a little sleepy this morning … I’m going to have to work extra hard to get a chuckle from you, I think.

paragraph divider 2A new twist for an old game?

My husband used to cheat on me.  Oh no … not in that sense … to the best of my knowledge, he never had an affair with another woman.  But he hated to lose at games … hated it so much that he was not beneath shortchanging other players, hiding their game pieces, or moving a hotel from somebody else’s property on to his own.  If all else failed and he lost anyway, he would lock himself into the bathroom and refuse to come out, so that eventually our guests would have to leave and go home to their own bathroom.

Hasbro, makers of the world-famous game Monopoly, has announced a new version of the game that rewards cheating and features handcuffs for those caught in the act.  According to senior vice president of Hasbro, Jonathan Berkowitz ….

“A recent study conducted by Hasbro revealed that nearly half of game players attempt to cheat during Monopoly games, so in 2018, we decided it was time to give fans what they’ve been craving all along – a Monopoly game that actually encourages cheating,”

Monopoly: Cheaters Edition, which is set for release this fall, offers 15 cheat cards with five placed in the middle of the board that ask players to carry out nefarious tasks including removing hotels, moving another player’s token, and stealing extra money from the bank that is without an assigned banker.

monopoly.jpgRewards for carrying out the cheat cards successfully without getting caught include extra cash or free properties while those caught will be sent to jail and potentially handcuffed to the board.

The game will be available this fall at a price of $19.99.  Board games in the era of Trump?

paragraph divider 2Van Gogh downgraded to graffiti??? 

Starry Night Van GoghNancy Nemhauser and Lubek Jastrzebski appreciate fine art, and decided to paint the wall outside their Mount Dora, Florida home, to resemble ‘Starry Night’, one of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous works.  Who could have guessed that before long the city would find the couple in violation of the ‘graffiti law’ which states that any outside wall must match the house?

starry house2starry night houseWell, the couple did exactly what I would have done … they painted the house to match the wall!  The city dropped the graffiti violation, but then ruled that the house was “a sign” and failed to meet code. The couple has been fined $100 per day, and while the fines were to be capped at 31 days, a magistrate, David Tegeler, ruled last week that the fines could continue unabated.

Now what, you ask, does the city care?  According to unnamed city officials, the house is considered a sign, the artist who painted the house and wall, Richard Barrenechea, is getting business, and the house is a distraction for drivers.

Nemhauser and Jastrzebski, a Polish immigrant, have obtained an attorney who says they will exhaust all options in the courts before the couple will pay any fines.  I am no legal expert, but this seems a case of harassment on the part of the city.  If you ask me, the house adds character to the neighborhood.

paragraph divider 2How many plumbers does it take …?

Flight DY1156 from Oslo to Munich on Saturday January 27, returned to Oslo due to a technical fault with the toilet. The aircraft was repaired and continued with the flight later that day.

The irony?  There was a group of 85 plumbers onboard the aircraft!

“We would have liked to fix the restrooms, but unfortunately it had to be done from the outside and we did not take the opportunity to send a plumber [out] at 10,000 meters,” said Frank Olsen, a passenger and CEO of plumbing company Rorkjop.

paragraph divider 2How long does it take a ‘tuga to cross the street?

We all know that turtles, tortoises, tortugas, are slow, right?  ‘Tis how I came by my nickname of Tortuga, or ‘Tuga for short, for I am sometimes slow.  In Oxford, England last year, Leanna Morris’ pet tortoise somehow took off on an adventure when left in the yard for a bit of exercise.  Morris was bereft at the loss of the tortoise, Tallulah, and spent weeks searching and posting flyers around the neighborhood.

“After a month or so I thought, OK, I need to put all her things away. So I kind of took down her box. I took down her light. I put her food back. It felt empty.”

sadAnd then, this …

tortoiseYep, a microchip confirmed that the turtle found at the school was indeed Tallulah.  The school is across the street, precisely 1,056 feet from Morris’ house.  Tallulah and Leanna are once again  reunited … well, almost.  Tallulah is currently spending a bit of time at the vers being treated for malnutrition and a swollen eye.

turtleI just love happy endings, don’t you?

paragraph divider 2And now, my friends, as much as I am enjoying your company and wish we could spend the entire day together, I have laundry calling me, and you have jobs calling you, so we must part ways for a while.  Please remember to share your smiles today … they are much too beautiful to keep to yourselves!  I wish you all a wonderful week ahead … keep warm and safe!  Hugs ‘n love from Filosofa!

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22 thoughts on “Once Again, It’s … Jolly Monday!!!”

  1. Sounds like some officials in a city in Florida aren’t paying attention to their ‘proper work’ and just footlin’ around with easy targets….pffft! My public service instincts see flim-flam!
    As for games…… you can’t beat.. Calvinball…as there are no rules

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’ve never heard of Calvinball, but it sounds fun … no rules, a free-for-all … count me in! And … I came across another story about a city in Florida where a 93 year old man was going out every day feeding the homeless and he got arrested, for they said that the homeless were “ruining the city’s image”. BAH!!!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Do you remember Calvin & Hobbes?….It was the game they played, frenetic with no rules.
        One of our councils fined a man for stopping on Christmas Day at a bus stop (No buses running) to offer help to a homeless man…… Personally if I was the Senior Staffer in these council I would be hauling the folk responsible into my office..
        The first words would be…’What the %*@! do you think you’re playing at?’
        Then the conversation would go down hill.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Oh oh oh oh oh!!! Yes!!! I love Calvin & Hobbes! In fact I occasionally use one of their strips in my posts. Now Calvinball makes perfect sense!

          Roger … what are we, the human race, turning into when we put ‘image’ ahead of human life? This, more than anything else, is eating at me. What happened to us and why? Not you, not me, not our friends, but people in general. On the story of the man feeding the homeless, one “fine, upstanding citizen” said that he was attracting the homeless and they stank, so they should go back to ‘wherever’ they came from. Can anybody really care so little for a human life? HOW??? WHY???? 😥

          Liked by 1 person

  2. Jill, your “cheating Monopoly” game reminded me of the University of Toronto and University of California at Berkeley study a couple of years ago. To their surprise, through a series of exercises, they learned that people with wealth cheated twice as much as people without. Now, most people did not cheat, but the rate was indeed higher.

    Then they used Monopoly and rigged the game – the less wealthier person received only $100 for passing go and could use only one die. The winning person would be barking out orders throughout. Then, they switched roles and the winning person (who had less real wealth) would bark out orders. I had to share this story again. Keith

    Liked by 1 person

    • GASP!!! People with wealth cheated twice as much as people without??? Why does that not surprise me? 😀 I wonder what their goal in that study was? Quite interesting, but not at all surprising. Wealth seems to lead to the illusion of immunity from social norms.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Jill, it is a sense of the “world is my oyster” in my view. They feel entitled to extra change, the right of way, that cookie saved for a children’s meeting, etc. which were all parts of the test. I think it also goes back to very successful people thinking they earned everything totally on their own, when they likely had some help and luck along the way. As Warren Buffett said, “I was born a white man in America.” All three of those factors gave him a leg up on others. Yes, he worked hard and studied financials of companies like no other, but this is his personal observation. Keith

        Liked by 1 person

        • I often wonder what causes the difference, though, between men like Buffett and men like Trump. Both wealthy, but one sees responsibility toward others less fortunate as being his responsibility, while the other simply calls those less fortunate ‘lazy’ and then turns a blind eye. Genetic differences? Upbringing?

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  3. I like the blue house!!! They should reward them, not fine them. – As for the cheater’s edition of Monopoly: I don’t want to know what kind of havoc that would create in our house! There is already enough conflict when my boys play normal board games … 😉

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  5. Dear Jill,

    I am buying that game of Monopoly. I have memories of playing this game with my son who was in middle school and friends. My son always won. In 1991, I suffered from a serious head injury which I still suffer from to a much lesser degree, where my son proceeded to take full advantage of me by cheating which I was not capable of catching. It was only when i noticed him giggling with his friends because he could not contain himself, that I figured out was going on. I remember the game with lots of pieces flying in the air. He would appreciate this gift.

    While I live in Tampa on the west coast in Florida, Mt. Dora is on the east coast. Still in most years, I have attended the Mt Dora Art Festival which is a big deal in Florida. If I were the attorney, I would contact many of the artists to let the city elders know what they can do with their fines.

    The airline personnel can ask if there is a doctor on the plane but they can’t ask the same for plumbers? How classist.
    I love the happy ending for Tortuga.

    Thanks for your Monday blogs. Hugs, Gronda

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  9. That’s a cracker – love the Monopoly – I am a notorious yahtzee cheat – so I will wait with bated breathe for the Yahtzee cheat edition. You have given me hope on a Monday

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