This is just one bridge too far. From NEWSMAX:
Classic Board Game Monopoly Alters Community Chest Cards for ‘Woke’ Times
Toy maker Hasbro is changing the time-honored classic board game Monopoly by altering the Community Chest cards, saying they ”are long overdue for a refresh.”
Without specifying which events, Hasbro pointed to the ”tumultuous year of 2020” as the inspiration for dropping ”You’ve won second place in a beauty contest,” ”a tax refund,” and ”bank error in your favor.” Fans of the game will get to vote on new options. [The horror.]
”Coming out of the tumultuous year of 2020, the term ‘community’ has taken on a whole new meaning,” the company said on its website. ”Hasbro is counting on their fans to help reflect what community means in their real lives, into the Monopoly game, by voting for new cards like ‘Shop Local,’ ‘Rescue A Puppy,’ [?!?] or ‘Help Your Neighbors.”’
All 16 Community Chest cards will be replaced by the fall.
”The world has changed a lot since Monopoly became a household name more than 85 years ago, and clearly today community is more important than ever,” said Eric Nyman, Chief Consumer Officer at Hasbro. ”We felt like 2021 was the perfect time to give fans the opportunity to show the world what community means to them through voting on new Community Chest cards. We’re really excited to see what new cards get voted in!” [Craven traitors.]
Options for voting on the Monopoly website will include voting between ”You rescue a puppy — and you feel rescued, too! Get out of jail free” and ”Your friends video chat after a tough day. Get out of jail free.” Other voting options include ”Just when you think you can’t go another step, you finish that foot race — and raise money for your local hospital. Advance to Go. Collect $200,” or ”You shopped local ALL week. Advance to go. Collect $200.” [Ooooh tempora!]
Other scenarios include rewards for visiting with an elderly neighbor, patronizing [oooops!] the school bake sale or donating blood.
The game, originally sold in 1935, is based on the buying and selling of properties, developing them and collecting rent from players landing on them with the intent of monopolizing the board and driving the other players into bankruptcy.
The properties are all based on streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey, although specialty versions also exist. A Ms. Monopoly version was released by Hasbro in 2019 in which girl and women players begin the game with $1,900 and boy and men players start with $1,500. Additionally, women and girls get $240 for passing go, while boys and men receive only the standard $200. [And… they still lose. What sort of lesson is that?]
Other changes include the properties being replaced by inventions by women and mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags removed in favor of a young woman character described as his niece. [His ‘niece’… riiiiight.]
I think it would be appropriate to make up a Monopoly set and perhaps produce it for readers here. Maybe Semper and I and few others can come up with something serious un-woke. Church history, and pilgrimage routes, shrines. Hovels and castles. Excommunications. Burn Giordano Bruno, advance to the Port of Genoa. Go on crusade, gain 50 scudi. Take a pilgrimage on the Via Francigena.
The monks reached out to me and said that for every FIVE new Club members who sign up and reference “Father Z” in the “Notes about your Order” line, I will get a free case of beer to share with my priest friends.
In the North, which is where most of you readers are, it is the first day of Spring, the Vernal Equinox, today. We are interested in this day in particular because we date Easter as the 1) first Sunday 2) after the first full Moon 3) on or after the Vernal Equinox.
From a reader…
