Did the man credited with inventing the game Monopoly actually invent it?

Now we’re ready to close out February!

The second month of the year (and the shortest) is about to be history.  Was yours a good one?  I certainly hope that it was.

Spring is right around the corner, you know.  Three more weeks or so, and we’ll celebrate the annual renewal of the world, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.  Those south of the Equator will be entering autumn.

Interesting, that.

So is trivia – interesting, I mean.  Enjoy!

Did you know …

… figs are not fruits?  Not technically, anyway.  A fig is actually an inflorescence.  What’s that you say – you don’t know what an inflorescence is?  Well, an inflorescence (okay, I just like saying it) is a cluster of flowers and seeds around a stem.  In other words, when you eat a fig, you’re actually eating flowers.  (Makes me think the cows have something going there.)

… the word “money” is relatively new in English?  While the concept of money has been around since humans first figured out exchange systems, the actual word didn’t appear in English until the 14th Century.  It was derived from the Latin word moneta, which was another name for the Roman goddess Juno.  Why Juno?  Because the Romans first minted coins near Juno’s temple around 300 BC.  (Money is also relatively rare in my wallet.)

… television productions can sometimes go overboard with regulations?  Consider:  During 2014, the television series Downton Abbey showed a plastic water bottle in the background of a promotional photo for the show.  Downton Abbey was set in the 1910s and 1920s, long before plastic water bottles existed.  Made aware of the goof, the producers issued an edict for the set:  all things modern were banned on the business side of the cameras.  The ban extended to water bottles, of course, along with modern watches, modern jewelry, and even actors’ underwear.  (Jeez, you make one little mistake, and then …)

… three presidents died on July 4, and one was born that day?  Presidents John Adams (1735-1826), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and James Monroe (1758-1831) all died on the fourth of July in their respective years, while Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) was born on Independence Day.  (A popular day for more than one reason, it seems.)

… the first observance of Memorial Day was in 1868?  The first official ceremony was held May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery.  It was then called Decoration Day and the first observance was presided over by General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885).  Grant recorded that about 5,000 people attended on a day that was “too warm for comfort,” and those in attendance endured a two-hour speech from another general and future president, James A. Garfield (1831-1881).  (What could he possibly have had to say that took two hours?)

… the man credited with inventing the popular board game Monopoly™ didn’t actually invent it?  Charles Darrow (1889-1967) is credited with inventing the game, which he sold in 1935 to Parker Brothers and thus became a millionaire.  But Darrow did not invent the game.  Rather, he found a game made in 1904 called The Landlord’s Game, created and patented by Elizabeth Magie (1866-1948), and developed his own version based on it.  The games are very similar in many ways (both, for instance, have railroads, utilities, and even a jail), but when Magie tried to sell her game she was told it was too complicated and too overtly political.  Magie’s game was created to illustrate the economic teachings of Henry George (1839-1897), a progressive economist who felt that unchecked capitalism was dangerous.  Darrow discovered Magie’s game when a friend taught him to play, and he made several cosmetic changes to it, then patented it and sold it as Monopoly.  While the game made Darrow a very wealthy man, Magie only received $500 for her original work, and no credit toward the creation of Monopoly.  Additional trivia note:  Lest you think Darrow a thief for taking Magie’s original game and using it to make his own, you should know that her patent on The Landlord’s Game, issued in 1904, had expired by the time Darrow patented his version in 1935.  (No good deed goes unpunished, it is said.)

… penguins swim faster than they walk?  Birds, of course, fly faster than they walk, but penguins cannot fly.  So they make up for it with their swim speeds.  A penguin can swim between five and six miles per hour, with bursts of up to 15 mph.  Their walking (waddling?) speed is between 1.7 and 2.4 miles per hour.  (Well, what’s there to walk to in Antarctica?)

… a businessman once made half a billion dollars in one day?  Howard Hughes (1905-1976) sold his 75% holdings in Trans World Airlines in 1966.  Hughes received a bank draft for $546,549,171 in return for the holdings that day.  (Some guys have all the luck.)

… the fire extinguisher was invented in the early 19th Century?  Captain George William Manby (1765-1854), a British author and inventor, created the first portable fire extinguisher in 1818.  Manby’s design held three gallons of potassium carbonate under compressed air pressure.  (Buckets of water were used prior to 1818.)

… a breed of shark can live in fresh or salt water?  The bull shark is able to live in both kinds of water because it is able to regulate salt and other substances in its blood.  A shark attack in a freshwater creek in New Jersey in 1916 is attributed to a bull shark.  Bull sharks have also been found in the Mississippi River.

… kilts are not native to Scotland?  They originated in France.  (I’m glad they migrated.)

Now … you know!