Wall Street Wheat
When I was a graduate student, way back before the beginning of recorded time, board games were still the rage. A group of us would meet at someone’s place, late at night, and play Monopoly or the world conquest game Risk. We also played a game based on the Chicago Commodities Market, called Pit. In it, we tried to corner the market in some commodity by trading with each other. As I recall, trading was accomplished by each of us holding up commodity cards while screaming for a trade at the top of our lungs. You had to drink a lot of beer to be successful at the game, but the playing field was level and the beer made the game just that much more fun.
I just received a new version of the game from Amazon and was astonished to learn that the rules have changed. In the new version, you and your friends get to sit in a corner somewhere and worry about the price of staples—food, heating oil, and gasoline, while Wall Street fat cats in suits bid for the commodities through stylized computer codes.
Beer anyone?