What is that? It’s been awhile since I played, I need my memory jogged as to if I’ve ever played that way.
Fines and taxes get tossed in the middle, and whoever lands on “Free Parking” wins the jackpot. I guess it’s an attempt to make the game more “exciting” like a Poker game or something. 
Ohh yeah.
I have played it like that sometimes, other times we played by the rules.
When I was first a Godzilla fan in the mid-90s, there was considerable debate within the community (such that it was). There were two fandom camps, one that went to G-Fest, the other that went to G-Con. One that subscribed to G-Fan magazine, the other to Kaiju-Fan magazine. Funny thing was, I could never tell what the big debate was Godzilla-related. It was just that the leader of one didn’t like the leader of the other and each camp had it’s followers. The usenet alt.movies.monster became especially rabid. Most odd.
Star Destroyer vs Enterprise. Especially later accusations that a Star Wars cross-sections book described the Star Destroyer in a way to intentionally win the debate. As in, the writer knew about the debate and made the Star Destroyer’s weapons more powerful. No, I’m not making this up.
Well I knew that anything to do with parenting could become a contentious hot topic. Ditto anything about races of people. (Although I did not know that Oriental was a slur, nor Hottentot, nor Eskimo.) People have very definite opinions about their pets and other people’s pets, too.
But a couple of things turned into real flame wars–the shoes vs. no shoes in somebody else’s house, for instance–who knew that was a hot topic? I don’t even understand why it’s a hot topic. It’s the same with the toilet paper (obviously it should go over the top, but we don’t hang it that way in our house because our cat will pull it all off unless we hang it the other way) or whether the default position of the toilet seat should be up or down. These are all things that just don’t seem like a big deal, one way or another.
And then there was once a quite vitriolic thread on something I never would have expected anyone to have strong feelings on. I can’t even remember what it was about–some kind of household repair, or something like that. It heated up real quick and went five or six pages. (As you can tell that one made a huge impression on me. 
) Makes me wonder if there is anything that any bunch of people can absolutely agree on.
In Hawaii, you ALWAYS take off your shoes. I guess it’s the Asian influence or something. It’s funny when you go to house parties and see literally piles of shoes which you have to step over to get in the door. Sometimes the pile can start 5-10 feet from the door.
Granted, the weather makes this easier, as most people wear sandals or flip-flops (called “slippahs”). Nowadays, when I visit the mainland, I still remove my shoes before going on a carpet. Habit, I guess.
Regular Asian?
What would an irregular Asian be? One who needs to eat more fiber?
I’ve heard that, among at least some Indian Subcontinent-decended Americans, the most accepted term for them is “Desi,” even though people from India claim that it applies only to them. (Considering that, IIRC, “des”–or “desh,” if you speak either major dialect of Bengali–just means “land,” then maybe lots of people from the Indian Subcontinent call themselves and their compatriots “desi,” while calling those from other countries by other terms.) Being my white-ass Jewish American self, though, I could be wrong about this.
Allow me to introduce my in-laws.
The sound you just heard was my wife slapping me for the 52nd time today for making wiseass remarks
And then there’s the times when you leave early and you have to find your shoes. And if you are wearing a common design, you hope you get the right ones.
In Canada, you remove your shoes, or at least ask. I think this comes from having to take off winter boots half the year.
[sub]I’m a slob; I somethimes leave mine on at home.[/sub]
No, no. It’s Regular Asian and Spicy Asian.
I hear they’re coming out with Ranch Asian later this year.
We also come in decaf.
As opposed to the unleaded variety.
: Responding to the hijack ::
I doubt there would be a problem with him keeping his shoes on. I’ve never heard of people being that over-the-top about it. Likewise, if you show up in a wheelchair that’s been rolling around in the mud, it’s not like anyone would tell you to leave your chair in the front hall and crawl to the dining room.
I’m in Toronto. Usually it’s just about mess (from snowy slushy weather) and noise (for those of us who are in older buildings with hardwood floors, shoes are tough on the neighbor’s below).
In dry warm weather my mom doesn’t object to shoes in her house (she is not in the big city), but I do (I am in the big city) because there is so much dog crap, pigeon crap, and disgusting gobs of spit on our sidewalks.
Glory, I come from a no-shoes household (aside from the fact that my family thinks its disgusting, we also keep our religious idols in the house. No shoes in temple/in front of the idol is a basic element of our faith)…anyway, my father’s best friend from work lost his leg in an industrial accident and wears a prosthetic. He is absolutely NOT required to take his shoes off and is allowed to stomp wherever he pleases, including in the kitchen where the mandap (temple) is kept.
We really shouldn’t continue the shoes/no shoes hijack here, because it truly does go multiple pages every time we get into it. As a result of being on the Dope, though, I am able to tell people that the real difference between Americans and Canadians is taking shoes off in the house. 
The ordering milk in a bar was one of my mind-blowers, as someone listed earlier. Why would I possibly care what someone else orders in a bar, but it went multi-pages, too. I think it was summed up well, that no group of people will ever agree on anything, big, small, or medium.
Yeah, there is generally common sense about such things. Around these parts there’s sort of an unspoken agreement:
Polite hosts never ask guests to remove their shoes, while polite guests always volunteer to do so.
In a no-shoes household, the host will say “Oh, thank you so much, you’re so considerate.” In a shoes-okay home, it’s ll be “Thanks, but please do whichever makes you feel most comfortable.”
YMMV
But featherlou, what about us privileged lot who have both passports??? Are we shoe-swingers?
In my experience not everyone in the world is attuned to the intricacies of foreign cultures and religions so the whole arch etiquette tralalala attitude doesn’t really fly with me. It’s better to nicely tell your guests who don’t know anything about Indian culture that you’d rather they not wear their shoes in the house so they don’t stomp around ever other desi’s house in their shoes.
OTOH, insisting upon it after your guest is like “no I’d rather not” makes you jerk to match them. Speaking up at all for someone who has a physical infirmity means the Gods will relegate you to working as a chamberpot in the next life.
“Free Parking” rules figured dramatically in a recent episode of “The Sopranos”
VCNJ~
It’s tough. Generally speaking I’m happy that my guests usually go ahead an remove their shoes. However, one guy has stinky feet, I mean STINKY, that actually are worse than anything a wiped off boot would generally carry. But as a polite hostess I say nothing.