Six-months after Superstorm Sandy, shore towns are rebuilding, but recovery is slow. Remnants of Sandy’s destruction are clearly visible. Towns are working hard to complete boardwalk projects to draw tourists back in time for summer. (April 29)
Dumb 911 calls always seem to make the news when someone is denied McNuggets or receives a subpar sandwich, but one 911 caller rang up emergency services — because she wanted a divorce.
As is generally the case, the misfiring 911 caller was cited — divorce is not considered an emergency, no matter how much you can’t stand your erstwhile nearest and dearest.
The woman lives in Girard Township in northwestern Pennsylvania, and early Saturday, she called 911 and asked for police to come to her Shadybrook Circle home for assistance in removing her husband from the residence.
As anyone who has been through the sticky machinations of divorce knows, the status of the marital residence is a point of contention — as was played out in the film The War Of The Roses, married couples will often stubbornly dig their heels in and refuse to leave when acrimony sets in, neither wanting to cede control of what is generally a couple’s largest asset.
It seems the Pennsylvania woman who called 911 over divorce was unaware her husband could not be forced to leave the residence, and local news sources report:
“Police say they explained to the woman, whom they are not identifying, that a divorce is a civil matter and that they could not make her husband leave the residence because no crime had been committed … Instead, police have cited the woman for disorderly conduct and misusing the Erie County 911 system.”
You may have heard the legend that an unemployed salesman named Charles Darrow invented the game of Monopoly during the depression, somewhere around 1935. That’s not entirely true.
A Quaker named Lizzie Magie, in fact, first created the game in 1904 to showcase the evils of property ownership (the original title was “The Landlord’s Game”.) Magie was a supporter of the Quaker tax reformer Henry George, and the game focused on players extorting one another.
It was a hit in the Quaker community — a big one. One enthusiastic fan was a hotelier named Charles Todd, who would sometimes play with his guests. One regular visitor was (you guessed it) Charles Darrow, who asked Todd to write up the rules for him.
Once the game took off, Parker Bros. learned its true origins and had to do some damage control. It bought the rights for $500 from Magie, who believed her original game — and its anti-property philosophies — would finally be distributed to the masses. And it was, though only for a couple hundred copies, at least, before it was discontinued. Turns out people had more fun with Darrow’s tweaks to the game.
The photo series will be published as a book. Knapp is launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing. Says Knapp, “It’s brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people, so I hope this helps spread that!” (Photo by Andrew Knapp)
Declaring “our work begins today”, President Barack Obama vowed to “finish what we started” four years ago as hundreds of thousands of inauguration-goers gathered on the historic National Mall in anticipation of his oath-taking for a second term.
“Let’s go,” Obama tweeted Monday morning as he began the day of inaugural celebrations.
Read the full story here.
Knapp got the purebred puppy at 8 weeks. The photogenic pooch is now 4 1/2 years old. Where’s Momo? (Photo by Andrew Knapp)
