to be very, very glad that Jo Whiley isn't one of the mums at our school's gates?

[fartmeistergeneral]

She's too perfect. I have read two interviews with her in the last few days and I would end up avoiding all contact with her if she was at the school gates. She shares a bed with her kids (odd, certainly, but they all snuggle up lovingly apparantly), her daughter was present at the birth of her youngest, they all sat in one Sunday afternoon and played Monopoly together, then had a lovely Sunday lunch. We stayed in, fought constantly, one was sent to bed early and we had beans on toast (honestly). She also has Chris Martin on speed dial. Sigh. She's a supermum and I would bitch about her at coffee mornings.

wonderstuff - DH reckons? He'd remember, surely? Unless he also snogged Louise Wener, Lauren Laverne, Miki Berenyi and Justine Frischmann on the same night, in which case I could forgive him for relgating Whiley...

Not particularly keen on her presenting style, but I reckon she knows about the realities of family life if anyone does. She's just a person doing a successful job that she enjoys!

No need for the slaying.

Monopoly is only half-decent if:

• you don't play any silly house rules (such as money for going on free parking)
• properties go up for auction if you don't buy them
• all the players are capable of negotiating trades and bidding sensibly at auctions

even then you've got about hours of dice rolling before something happens.

It's also crap if you don't have enough players, because if you don't the winner is decided by whomever is lucky enough to get a monopoly first.

Then the rest of the players just sit there waiting to be wiped out. Slowly, painfully, waiting to be crushed underfoot.

Even playing online, which speeds up the tedious dice rolling, people often quit when someone gets a monopoly. Because it's game over at that point. But, unfortunately, it's not. It's going to go on for hours still, but with the outcome obvious for all to see, so why bother to continue?

Sensible families play nice modern games without such fundamental flaws, games such as Ticket To Ride.

used to love monopoly -until 20 years ago when i first played with testosterone riddled dp

annoying turd buys EVERYTHING

cant play now

6 kids at stake

Am snickering at all the monopoly-stories.

Someguy - that is exactly why Monopoly is so awful. And the awful, awful thing is that the monopolee, as the truth of their situation dawns on them, is seized with a crazed lust to continue playing.

Suddenly, the urge to dominate and crush, itself held in abeyance in the capitalist system in reality, is awakened, and they sense something of the power which normally subdues them, and the possibility of themselves as masters ....

[Sorry, I thought I'd try and write a little in the style of Adorno there, but I can;t quite pull it off.]

Oddly enough, I'm banned for appalling cheating.

Yes, my son happily lets him annihilate his toy soldiers. At least he can fight back. But playing Monopoly against a loaded opponent, rolling over and over until you eventually land on the Mayfair hotel is an exercise in futility that you'd have to be Siegfried Sassoon to adequately evoke.

Siegfried Sassoon! That has made me laugh!

Or maybe Nietzsche:

"And then Zarathustra cams upon his little animals. And they were busy amongst themselves, playing a game. And Zarathustra watched them for a time and a great sadness came upon him, and a look of melancholy came upon his face. And he spoke to them thus:

'My furry friends; can you not see you are completely s? The squirrel, here, is bound to win, and you are doomed.'

And he sank down, and tears tolled down his face. And finally, he spoke again:

'And what does this say of life? Is not hope a curse? The final trick of the gods.'

And the little animals scampered and gambolled before him and said;

'Lighten up, Zarry, it's only a game.'

cherryblossoms

Only on MN can a thread start off about Jo Whiley and continue (via PR spin, sleb sexlives and Monopoly) on to Nietzsche.

BBC mouthpiece selling kack indie tat to the masses.

pseudo faux hippy bore.

Lol. My mother banned Monopoly because my father (an accountant by trade) always won, and she felt it was too capitalist. Then from somewhere we got a set in Italian which apparently was OK because it was educational (#$@*!) The grandchildren brought new sets with them on visits, and enjoy playing my father (I think his urge to beat us at every single game has died down/he's not as good as he used to be).

I had to Google her as I had no clue who she was!

UQD DH is convinced the story is true. I am not 100% sure I believe him.

Rofl at all the Monopoly stories M

My older sister has a bite-mark scar related to this. Yes, she was cheating. Yes, I bit her. Yes, she has the massive scar to prove it. I, on the other hand, though scarless, ended up with a broken little finger on my left hand. Yes, my mother burnt the game in our backyard in front of us. No, we never bought or played Monopoly ever again.

The moral of the story:
'Monopoly can seriously affect the health and sanity of those who play and those who don't.'

I do still have fond-ish memories of games which didn't end quite so violently

Hooray for being an only child - no-one to play Monopoly with. We did have a set, I used to line up the houses to make streets and drive the car down them. Don't think I've ever played a game right to the end in my life.

We have a Thunderbirds Monopoly set. The little spaceship models are quite cute. The cards, however, invite you to 'Build a Hotel on Lady Penelope', which is both bizarre and cruel...

Themed monopoly is just wrong

The original should only ever be played if everyone involved understands the level of ludicrous overcompetitiveness involved.

My father nearly thumped one of DB's guests at his 11th birthday after the little toad he cheated at Monopoly

This is quite a nice educational game:

www.otb-games.com/europe/index.html

I wonder how many people can accurately label all of Europe's countries.

They have versions for Asia and Africa if you prefer.

Incidentally reminds me of:

www.tripadvisor.com/TIQGame-p581

I can never remember where the Marshall Islands are.

It's all made up of course, she is so irritating, she drives me bananas with her meeja life and famous mates and her 'cool' taste in music. All a fiction I'm sure.

I like her, but suspect this is PR based drivel. She should have an ordinary life, like most people on here.

On Saturday evening, DH & I squabbled over a pizza and salad. As she silenced me for the second time, whilst I furiously and childishly tried to make my point one last time, I slammed down my cutlery, reached for the car keys and drove into the beautiful green hills of Derbyshire. Here I contemplated my wonderful life...my crappy house, my lack of a challenging job, my beautiful, but basically average child and my demented husband. I drove back speechless at where my life had come only to see the sun setting in the distance.

DH made concilliatory noises as I came through the door, handing me my my unfinished beer and asking whether it was all better now. I resisted the yearning to punch him in the nose and stormed off to bed where I instantly fell into a deep and dreamless slumber.

Next day dd arrives back from Grandmas. I find MIL has spent most of the weekend telling DD that she has the right to go on the expensive holiday we'd mentioned and she should go. We, however, had decided it was off the cards, so had to deal with this as a couple. The experience bought us back together and we sat and played JUNIOR monopoly until the early hours of the evening. We then cuddled our daughter in bed, kissed her sweetly goodnight and realised just how lucky we really were.

Well, all of that happened, except for the realising how lucky we were. We just ignored each other again until this morning

Do you think I need a PR guru on my life???

YANBU- I want her life too!

Gosh, you are all so synical?

If I could sleep with my babies every night I would. I had my little ones in bed with me until they were almost a year.

Monopoly is a great family game when dad and kids are involved.

For my next birth I really want my kids with me to see the little one come out and infact I want my mum and my sisters there too! This is why a home birth would be great.

I want the whole family to experience it!

Why are you all judging her for being a great motherly mum? She has a demanding TV job and she is a great mum.

You guys are not too cool for going off at her.

I don't like that funny way she looks at the camera, all Princess Di like.

I think she ties too hard. If she does all these things with her family, why is it interesting to anyone else?

She winds me up the wrong way. I can't stand her fakeness on the radio, and I'm convinced that the whole idyllic view of her life is all nonsense.

Maybe she is a lovely mother who can juggle a solid career and family and well done to her, but I cant stand her and how she is constantly a voice over for loads of stuff on the telly and how she is this amazing person who finds all the new music on radio 1.