It must have been a crushing blow. It was 1934, the depths of the Great Depression. Charles Darrow was unemployed. But, he had an idea. Actually, he had a board game. He called the game Monopoly. He liked the board game and felt it was his ticket to financial success and out of the desperation of the depression. Darrow had taken his game to the famous Parker Brothers game company to publish and help him sell.
The Parker Brothers had agreed to look at the board game for Darrow. They were not impressed. Formed in 1883, by 16-year-old George Parker, the game publishing company had been making and selling games and puzzles for 51 years. During that time they had seen success and failure. Parker Brothers knew the game business. They knew what worked and what didn't. They knew what sold and what didn't. Representatives of the giant game company found 59 reasons why they did not think Darrow's game could be successful.
Charles Darrow simply didn't agree. He believed. He decided to publish Monopoly himself and market it through department stores. He had 5,000 copies of the board game printed.
Hope was scarce during that harsh Christmas of 1934. Money was even scarcer. And, Monopoly was a hit. Nearly all 5,000 copies of the board game sold. Within a year Parker Brothers was publishing the game. It was the best selling game in America by 1936.
Monopoly is now published in 89 languages and over 200 million copies of the board game have been sold. More than 500 million people have played the game. It has also been adapted as an electronic game. Monopoly is firmly entrenched as the best selling board game of all time.
Monopoly is a relative upstart compared to other popular board games.
The oldest known board game is called "The Royal Game of Ur" or the "Game of 20 Squares". This game was discovered in a 4,500-year-old tomb in southern Iraq. This game was played throughout the Middle East for perhaps 1,000 years or more. In fact, the rules of the game have been found in cuneiform tablets. Game aficionados can play this ancient game yet today, even though it has long ago faded from popularity.
Perhaps the oldest board game still popular today is chess, which first appeared in India by the sixth century A.D. By the year 1,000 it was being played throughout the Middle East and in Europe. The rules and game board design have evolved somewhat over the centuries, but the game is still very much the same as the ancient Indians played it. They could hardly have dreamed, however, of the world-class chess match play or the electronic versions of the game we enjoy today.
Another very old, yet immensely popular board game is checkers, also known as draughts. A form of checkers was being played by the Egyptian Pharaohs as early as 1600 B.C. This game has also evolved over the centuries. By the 12th century the game was adapted to the 64-square chessboard. Four hundred years later the rules involving capture were added, yielding essentially the same game we play today.
There is simply no way to tell how many copies of chess or checkers have been sold or how many people have played these games. If the numbers were known, they would have to be truly staggering.
Popular Board Games Share Common Traits
Other top selling board games include Yahtzee, Scrabble, Mahjong, Trivial Pursuit, Battleship and the Risk game. Most of these games were developed during the 20th century and all are still big sellers and tremendously popular.
These popular board games share some similar traits. Most of them involve specific strategies of play. When these strategies are employed successfully, the games are fun, challenging and intensely rewarding as players attempt to capture portions of the board and/or each other. Another common element in most of these board games is chance, or luck. Luck is introduced usually by drawing cards or rolling dice. The element of chance opens up possibilities for even more strategies of play. A final important trait of these games is that in one way or another they reflect the lessons of life. They teach competition and sportsmanship. They teach strategy and the lesson of never giving up.
Perhaps that is why Charles Darrow was so attracted to Monopoly. He believed that success comes by employing sound strategies to following a dream and never giving up. We are glad that Darrow didn't give up. We are glad he didn't throw the board game with 59 things wrong in the trash bin as he left the Parker Brothers plant in 1934.
About the author: Royce Armstrong is a successful freelance writer with a business and banking background who believes consumers should get the best value for their money when shopping for board games [http://www.a1-in-toys.com/board-games.html], family games [http://www.a1-in-toys.com/electronic-games.html] and learning games [http://www.a1-in-toys.com/index.html].
Best known for his striking, controversial - sometimes, outrageous collection - Jean-Paul Gaultier (born April 24, 1952 in Arcueil, France) never received formal education as a designer. He started creating sketches at a young age and was designing clothes for his mother and grandmother by age 13. At 17, he sent the sketches to renowned couture stylists including Pierre Cardin. His talents impressed Cardin who then hired him as an assistant.
Gaultier spent the next two years working for Cardin before he became a designer for Jacques Estrel and later on, for the House of Patou in Paris where he worked for three years. In 1976, French fashion magazine Mode Internationale featured a number of Gaultier's sketches which received favorable reviews by designers all over the world. That same year he launched his own designer label under Mayagor, while engaging in freelance RTW furs, swimsuits and leather.
Since 1981, Gaultier has been known to produce avant-garden designs, which bore him the name enfant terrible, or the bad boy of French fashion. His style is mainly focused on street wear and popular culture. A popular example would be the conical bra that he designed for Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour. Kilts are also a significant part of his menswear collection, even using them himself on TV events and shows where he acts as presenter, such as Eurotrash. Similarly, his choice of models remains unconventional - from older men and plus-size women to pierced and tattoo-ridden youngsters. Occasionally, he toys with gender roles for exhibitions.
In 1987, Gaultier was awarded French designer of the year. A year after, he launched an affordable sportswear line named Junior Gaultier in Paris, then later to department stores in the United States. In contrast, he planted another store of ready-to-wear clothes for men and women in Paris with high-end prices that were exported to boutiques in uptown Miami, Los Angeles and New York.
The French designer is also known to design wardrobes for motion pictures, including Greenaway's "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" and the sci-fi thriller "The Fifth Element". He has also created outfits for artists like Madonna, Marilyn Manson and Les Fatals Picards. During the 90s, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted an exhibit for him, entitled "Bravehearts - Men in Skirts."
Currently he serves as designer for three collections: his own haute couture and RTWs, and leather clothing for French line Hermes. He also has a fragrance collection which began with Classique for women in 1993, followed by Le Male for men in 1995. Le Male is the highest grossing men's perfume in Europe and holds an equally competitive position in Australia and the US. A third perfume, Fragrance for women, was launched in 2000 although it received relatively low sales. This was followed by a unisex fragrance, Gaultier in 2005. His latest fragrance for men, Fleur du Male was launched in 2007.
Find Jean Paul Gaultier perfumes and colognes and many others like Obsession cologne at perfume center.
Soy candle making supplies have several advantages over other supplies, not the least of which is the light carbon footprint these supplies leave - and they do so at a smaller cost than my favorite "green" luminary: beeswax. Soy candle making supplies, like beeswax supplies, produce luminaries that burn cleanly, with little of the black soot given off by paraffin wax. Yet they cost much less.
Soy supplies yield other benefits, too, for the caring chandler. These supplies let you create lights that burn more slowly, lasting longer than other types of similar size. In fact, one six-inch soy pillar is likely to last thirty to fifty percent longer than a six-inch paraffin pillar.
Soy candle making supplies actually cost less, in the long run, than others. When brand new chandlers include in their cost calculations the number of hours their creations can be expected to burn, they are often surprised to find that soy gives them nearly twice as many hours of beauty and fragrance for their money. To put it another way, you get twice as many beautiful candles (in burn hours) from soy candle making supplies as you do from other types of wax supplies.
Wicks Can Be Eco-Friendly
The most beautiful and fragrant luminary will never pulse with life until it has a wick, of course. The wick is the heart of your candle. A wick turns that cold, hard, soy wax into a warm, beautifully pulsating light.
Since soy candle making supplies such as soft wax, bright dyes, and sweet fragrances can all be totally eco-friendly, an environmentally sensitive chandler will want to put eco-friendly wicks on his or her list of soy candle making supplies, too. You might want to look at the two types of wicking below:
· Cotton core wicking - is a good choice when using environment-conscious soy wax. Cotton core wicks produce a hot flame that reduces carbon buildup. Made of one hundred percent natural, renewable cotton fibers, these eco-friendly wicks use a rigid inner core to make them stand straight and remain straight.
· Hemp core wicking - will also enhance your soy candle making supplies. The one hundred percent hemp fiber forms a natural eco-friendly core that, like cotton, is rigid enough to hold the wick straight as your wax burns. The core itself is enclosed in unbleached one hundred percent cotton.
Wax Can Be Eco-friendly
Soy candle making supplies would be nothing without the soy wax that farmers derive from their soybean crops.
As the wick of your pillar or votive burns, it needs a constant supply of wax for fuel. Without wax, the wick would consume itself very quickly. The wick melts the soy wax into a liquid, which is carried to the flame. There, it is turned to vapor and burned away.
But why use soybeans? Aren't those the beans they use to make tofu and food for livestock?
True, soybeans are a food source for humans and animals, but they are also rich in oil, and that oil provides an inexpensive alternative to beeswax or other waxes. When processed, a sixty-pound bushel of soybeans will yield about eleven pounds of crude soybean oil
Between 1991 and 1992, the candle industry's Michael Richards developed soy wax to fill a growing demand for less expensive natural candles. Mr. Richards began with natural soybean wax. Into that wax, he blended partially hydrogenated soy oil, coconut oil, and palm oil. Later, Mr. Richards added a small amount of beeswax to create even more cost effective soy candle making supplies.
Softer than most other waxes, soy wax is usually used for pillars or container candles. It can be used for tapers, votives, and tea lights, but you will want to add a fair quantity of wax hardener to your list of soy candle making supplies if you want to make those.
List of Supplies
This list of soy candle making supplies will get you started. Follow good instructions and you should be able to make about 20 one-half-cup-size container chandelles.
· 5 lbs of soy wax
· 20 cotton-core or hemp-core wicks - 4" size
· 3 bottles of fragrance - 2 oz. size
· 3 bottles of dye, 1 each of red, blue, and yellow
· 20 glass or ceramic jars with lids - 4 oz. size
Soy candle making supplies such as those on our list are available from many online retailers - or visit your local craft and hobby stores. You will want to remember as you shop, though, that the higher the quality of your soy candle making supplies, the higher the quality of your finished luminaries. They will burn longer, burn more evenly, and emit far less soot. They will also fill your room with a more pleasant, longer lasting scent.
© 2009, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about soy candle making supplies at http://www.secretsofcandlemakingcrafts.com. Anna has posted articles on that site about other candle making crafts, too. If you want to learn secrets of getting great results with candle making wax, you won't want to miss her article on the subject.
