the game of Monopoly

I liked games with a mathematical twist. One day I said to the kids while pulling out the Monopoly box, "let me show you how INFLATION works. When one passes GO it pays $400 instead of $200". It wasn't long before Boardwalk was being sold for $500, then resold for $800.

Some players would save a wad of cash, then swoop down on a withering player and scoop up prime properties for a song. Others would go for a big hit on every roll of the dice. Inflation at work, winners and losers.

How about DEFLATION ? As one passes GO collect $400 still, but pay $300 tax upon landing. One can only think about the results of a grind like this.

WOW !!

It takes a million million to make a trillion.

We the people are in debt for ten trillion dollars.

Think of that !!

In perspective, the sun is 93 million miles away.

10,000,000,000,000/93,000,000 is

107,527 $1 trips to the sun

Click Link Below

Journeys from our 30's

http://www.openmyeyeslord.net/ALookBackInHistory.htm

Keli Mcgregor

Keli McGregor, died last night in an Utah hotel during sleep. He was 48.

He was president of the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club. Born in Iowa, he played tight end at Colorado State and then the NFL.

We had prime seating at Coors Field for the Colorado Rockies, adjacent to the dugout. When the Rockies wanted our seats to remodel a VIP section, Keli called me and accepted my trade of my ticket rights for 12 free seats a year in the shade by the toilets, parking in the owners parking lot---AND-----Billie to throw out the 1st pitch of the game vs the Dodgers for her July 18 birthday.

He accepted.

1860

The sermon in church today dealt with historical regression.

Bounce my life back in reverse would land me on 1860, the last year before the Civil War began. Abraham Lincoln was elected president running on the new Republican Party ticket, an offshoot of the old, tired Whig party. (Any resemblance here?)

The pony express began operations in 1860, running between St Joseph Mo and Sacramento Ca. It lasted less than a year but was an historical hay ride...

No Hitter

Jiminez pitched the 1st no hitter for the Rockies franchise tonight. Rox 4, Braves zip.

Actually a batter hitting for the "cycle" s-d-t-hr is more rare than a no hitter.

One night at Coors Field we saw Marbry hit for the cycle in that exact order: s-d-t-hr-Gatorade.

Date Night

A good friend of ours took a date to a college burger joint last night.

Near the end of the meal, the date confessed that she felt "old, fat and tired".

Our friend said, "check, please".

Too Much Taxes ?

A resent poll inquired, "Do you think we are paying too much taxes" ?

70 % answered that we were yet 49% pay no income tax.

Reread my 11/18/2008 blog.

Inheritance

My Dad had an identical twin brother, his only sibling. Their Mother leftt them when they were just six weeks old. Relatives raised them. They dropped out of school after the 8th grade and shortly thereafter they took embalming school. After graduation they purchased a funeral home on a shoestring in Iowa City. The year was 1929. It was a time of hard times for many years incl the death of Dad's twin from TB in 1938. WW2 followed, ending in 1945.

One day in about 1955, an elderly woman came into the Oathout Funeral Home. She told Dad that she was his Mother ( my gma). She had never written, called, nada. She was down on her luck. So my parents, the great caregivers that they always were, bought her a house in Marshalltown, large enough to rent out a portion and titled it to Gene and I after she died. Well, a week before she passed, she willed the house to the renter and we got nada.

The point is: NEVER COUNT A BUDDING INHERITANCE until it happens. AND NEVER THINK that you won't get a much smaller piece than anticipated.

Failed State

A failed state is one in which the central government has lost control over significant areas of the country and the state is unable to function. It seems that the Mexican government has lost control of the northern tier of Mexico to drug-smuggling organizations, which have significantly greater power in that region than government forces. Moreover, the ability of the central government to assert its will against these organizations has weakened to the point that decisions made by the state against the cartels are not being implemented or are being implemented in a way that would guarantee failure. Mexico seems to be a failed state.

The core problem is the high consumption of narcotics by the United States. This means that extraordinary profits can be made by moving narcotics from the Mexican border into the United States. There is little cooperation between the competing producers resulting in open warfare in northern Mexico.

The heartland of Mexico is to the south, far from the sparsely populated region of the raging drug battle. The Mexican government largely stays uninvolved; indeed, the amount of money pouring into Mexico is stunning. This money is washed and surfaces as investments in legitimate enterprises throughout Mexico and beyond.

Yerrrrr OUT !!

Baseball !! Red Hots Red Hots !! Cotton Canda !! Beer Here Ice Cold Beer Here !!

Another opening week of the sport that has outlived every person.

I was the neighborhood dad who loaded the kids into the wagon on a home Saturday, to see the Denver Bears. The kids could buy a Cub Badge for a dollar and go to all the games free.

This is a special time for me, every year.