Hey, Tim. Can We Play Too?
By Eastan McNeal on April 12, 2009 at 11:00 PM in Current Affairs, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Tim Geithner
Faster than you could shake a drunk donkey off of an epileptic elephant’s back I put two and two together..
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Sometimes I wish I had Larry Doyle’s knowledge and financial background. Sometimes I am glad I don’t, for if I did, I would not have amused myself as much today. I was listening to a talking head on a business network TV show and heard a word that was not in my normal everyday lexicon. Later I rushed to the computer and typed in what I thought I remembered. The word was Oligopoly. |
The talking head was, well, talking about giant multi-national businesses stretching out across horizontal markets that they all shared, along with a common interest in collusion. I had just passed by that very same TV only minutes earlier and I was sure they were talking about the bailout plan being like a board game with convoluted, peculiar looser-rewarding rules. I must have gotten a few charged particles crossed in my cognitive recall cells because, by the time I got to the computer, I went to Google and searched for the word..
Totopoly! Faster than you could shake a drunk donkey off of an epileptic elephant’s back I put two and two together and got, of course, twenty-two.
I read the definition and description and it was like an epiphany. I declared out loud: “Now I know. I now know where Timothy Franz Geithner got his game plan. I finally understand it all!”
Totopoly is a commercial board game, based on the events leading up to, and during, a horse race. Originally made in 1938 by Waddingtons, the game is based on a double-sided board, with each side representing a different half of the game.
In the first section, each player has a set of horses, which start and end this phase in one of two stables. The horses are moved around a loop, and, depending on which squares they land on, the player may collect “advantage” and “disadvantage” cards, which become important in the game’s second phase. Some horses may be eliminated during this part of the game. An unusual feature is that each player throws the dice only once in each turn, the same throw being used for all his or her horses.The game’s second phase is the actual race. Before starting, bets may be placed on any horse the player wishes. During the race, “advantage” cards may be played to improve a horse’s position; also, any “disadvantage” cards held must be used, with the effect of holding a horse back or canceling an “advantage” card, before the end of the race. As well as the settling of bets, prize money is awarded for first, second and third place.
A curious aspect of the game, which some people have regarded as a serious design flaw, is that (in the original version) the winner was the person whose horse came in first, irrespective of how much money they had. This meant that the part money played in this version of the game was fairly minor, and in particular the elaborate rules for betting, together with the prize money, were actually quite irrelevant. More recent editions of the game have an alteration to the rules, allowing the players to make the winner the one who has most money at the end of the race.
Source: Reference.com
OK Tim. I think I got it. Can I play now?
by Ronald Scott
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