Category Archives: Muddled Musings

The Real Transfer of Power

Leadership & Continuity: The Peaceful Transition of Power | Eidson & Partners

Itaúna There are two types of American president: the person you’d like to be; and the person you probably are.

buy cheap Pregabalin online Barack Obama was a president we’d like to be: young, eloquent, quick with a smile. Donald Trump was the president we probably are: aging, weight issues, quick to temper.

Physical and philosophical idiosyncrasies aside, the pattern tends to track historically, too. We wanted to be like Lincoln. We wanted to be like Kennedy. We wanted to be like Reagan.

The person we’d like to be.

Conversely, we probably were like Nixon. We probably were like George W. We thought we wanted to be like Clinton, but bitterly discovered that we probably already were.

The person we probably are.

It’s no mean feat, turning what you are into what you’d like to be. It’s easier to bitch about a problem than confront it. Victimization is a breeze. Aspiration is a bitch. Which is why the “transfer of power” is moving in fits and starts. It’s actually a transfer of mindsets.

And we’ve committed to change, like a New Year’s resolution to adopt a dog or join the armed services. In this case, commitment was in the form of 80 million-plus eviction notices for Trump. And like any deadbeat tenant, he and his roommates will trash the place before leaving.

That’s because Trump still represents 74 million-plus Americans who don’t feel like aspiration. Who knows? Donald Trump may have been the person they wanted to be.

And make no mistake: The reason Trump and his toadies are dragging their feet on change is because the people they represent are just as cold to it. Perhaps more so.

Regardless, the commitment to Biden is a tacit commitment to work: on COVID; on climate; on gender and race relations. All with a Senate that has a vested interest in proving to Americans the system is broken, rotted and irreparable.

And, regardless of party, is Biden not the type of grandparent we want to be? Active, still quick, forgiving, gentle. Don’t we want to be the genteel grandpa instead of the grimacing one?

5 Ways Biden Will Affect Your Finances As President – Forbes Advisor

But that’s the cost of transfer: sweat equity.

There are plenty of signs that 2021 is going to be a terrific year. Proud Boys and QAnon are out. A COVID vaccine and the word of science are in. Dreamer immigrants have a reason to dream again. American government looks more like America again.

It’s enough to make a body hopeful.

And who wouldn’t want to be that?

Do Not Pass Go

monopoly board game

In honor of National Play Monopoly Day, we offer this FactSlap column, Top Hat edition:

  • Charles Darrow developed Monopoly in 1933, using materials from his own home for the first game. The cards were handwritten and a piece of oilcloth covered the board.
Charles Darrow
  • The original houses and hotels were made from wooden molden scraps. The pieces themselves were recommended by Darrow’s nieces.
monopoly houses
  • Parker Brothers originally rejected Monopoly because they had issues with the game’s length, theme, and complexity. They reconsidered their decision to purchase rights to market the game after its success in local Philadelphia stores.
Signed Monopoly Popular Edition Game 1938
  • The original Monopoly game sold for $2. Today, the average price for the classic version of the game is $18.
Monopoly Popular Edition Game 1936
  • After less than a year of the game’s release, Parker Brothers was making 35,000 copies of the board game per week.
  • The standard amount of money in a Monopoly game is $20,580.
  • The longest game of Monopoly lasted 70 straight days.
  • Escape maps, compasses, and files were inserted into Monopoly game boards smuggled into POW camps inside Germany during World War II. Real money for escapees was slipped into the packs of Monopoly money.
WWII Waddington's Monopoly Game
  • Tokens from the US Monopoly: Here & Now edition were flown into space aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2007.
  • Monopoly is published in 47 languages and sold in 114 countries.
During one part of the book they play monopoly every night and the games would get very heated and the pieces would g… | Monopoly pieces, Game pieces, Monopoly game