On Games (A meme)

I’ve picked up Andrew’s challenge to write about boardgames I love which begin with the letter M

Monopoly

I do like Monopoly, and for several reasons.

Firstly, it’s a much more interesting game if you play it by the actual rules and auction any property that anyone lands on.

Secondly, it is a source of great joy that it can be used to wind up my mother (who is not a particularly gracious loser. I recall, one occasion where one of my siblings having decided he’d had enough and wasn’t going to win sold his entire portfolio to me for $€£1 thus altering the entire balance of the game and enfuriating my mother.

Thirdly, on a family holiday to Spain before the Captain was born we picked up a Spanish language travel. We could remember the rules well enough but had some difficulty working out which were the Chance cards and which Community Chest.

Murder Mystery

I love Murder Mystery dinner party games and it’s a great sadness to me that I don’t do this more often. The games themselves are usually quite silly (or I am actually much, much worse at them than I think I am) and it’s fun to see your friends dressed up and taking on roles.

Anything that encourages a little preparation for social dining is a good thing in my book.

Mah Jong

I’ve just bought a Mah Jong set in China Town in Singapore. It is in a small box, classic red Chinese (or Chinoiserie) woodwork with gold decoration. It looks lovely and suits the sitting room where it now lives next to the smallest of my Happy Buddhas.

My grandmother, who lived in Singapore for a while, was a mad Mah Jong player and every time we visited we played. When I was 12 I was moderately competent. I can’t remember anything more than the general scheme at the moment. I’m looking forward to re-learning the rules and how to play.

The rules that came with the set are utterly unreadable. I can’t follow them at all. I’ll need to find a version on the internet.

Anyone visiting my home is going to be pressured to play mah jong.

(If anyone would like a letter, please comment below.)

On the Particular and Peculiar and Unsatisfactory Constitutional Position of Washington DC

Washington DC has a particular and peculiar constitutional position in the US.

DC is a federal district, as provided for in the US Constitution, rather than a state. Consequently DC has no senators and can only send an observer status member to the House of Representatives. Were DC a state it would qualify for the two senators and, with a population of some 600,000 one Representative. They would all three be Democrats.

The citizens of DC are therefore under represented at a federal level. They do pay federal taxes though. Worse is to come. At a local (state) level DC has a legislative council but it’s status is only advisory. It can be, and often is over-ruled, by Congress.

Many citizens of DC are unhappy about this and have used what political powers they have to change their licence plates. Specifically, licence plates are issued by states and federal districts with one of one or more mottos on them.

The DC licence plates read “No taxation without representation.”