Monopoly

Monopoly
Originally uploaded by teenmachine.

<> It's not often that you see an audience of grown men
around a monopoly board, watching intently as if it were the superbowl. That is, of course, unless you've been cooped up at the South Pole for 9 months.

An impromptu game of monopoly was started by four guys around mid-day in the galley. When they were about an hour into the game, me and a friend went there for lunch. We noticed the game as we were deciding where to sit and it seemed like it might be fun to watch them play. By the end of our meal, we were completely enthralled in the game, and we both said it was one of the most exciting lunches we've had in a long time. But that was just the beginning.

A few hours, a dozen hotels, and one bankrupt player later, the audience was no longer just a couple galley transients. The game was down to the final two players and rents in excess of $1000 were being exchanged on a regular basis, so naturally, with this level of intensity, the spectators all had beverages and appeared to be staying for a while.

Those of us watching the whole scene just laughed at the fact that the most exciting thing going on here at the moment was a board game that most of us hadn't played since childhood. At least it wasn't chutes and ladders. Maybe that will be next month when we're really bored and brain dead.