Less than total irrelevance

Ever cheat at Monopoly? So did its “creator,” Charles Darrow, who stole the idea from a pioneering female game designer.

The true story of Monopoly begins a few decades before Darrow rolled the dice, with a Washington, D.C., woman named Lizzie Magie. In 1904, Magie patented something called the Landlord’s Game, which was, in some great irony, an argument against the concentration of wealth. Her game spread around the country, including to the Quakers of Atlantic City, N.J., who added all their city’s street names (Atlantic Avenue, Kentucky Avenue, Park Place). Darrow got his hands on the game through a Quaker friend — and then sold it to Parker Brothers as his own.

Magie’s story only came to light in the 1970s, when Parker Brothers went after a San Francisco State University professor who was producing a game called Anti-Monopoly. Read the whole story here — and you know I’m the iron, right? I’m always the iron.

Here is the big story, and we are incredibly excited to share it with you – today we are rolling out the new About.com, our first new site in nearly a decade. It has been a year long labor of love, and we are thrilled to share it with you. We hope you like it as much as we do.

A legendary 1960s battle over the urban design of New York City is getting its dramatic due. The struggle between urban planner Robert Moses and journalist/activist Jane Jacobs over Moses’s proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway will become an opera, thanks to composer Judd Greenstein and director Joshua Frankel.

Moses and Jacobs had deeply divergent visions of New York City’s future. Moses was the powerful planner behind a swath of New York City expressways that displaced half a million people during his reign as the city’s master builder. He envisioned a city built for easy driving. Jacobs, who popularized the idea of eyes on the street—the notion that streets are safer and more vibrant when there are pedestrians on them—vehemently opposed Moses’s plans to raze Washington Square Park and much of Greenwich Village, where she lived, to build yet more miles of highway.

Image: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images 

Today On About.com: Get Jacked by Swimming, Keeping Long Distance Relationships, Losing Friends because You’re Hangry.

Want a bod like Michael Phelps? Try swimming.

When to Trust Your Kids with Debit Cards

14 Gifts for the College Grad

How to Maintain a Long Distance Relationship

The Rare Repeats of Stanley Cup Champions

FACT: Your friend can’t deal with you when you’re hangry.

A memo from 20 years ago, today.

Key quote: “The internet is a collection of computer networks that is connected around the world…A code of ‘netiquette’ exists among users and within user groups, but otherwise, you pay your money, find your niche and take your chances.”

Check us out today on TechCrunch, where CEO Neil Vogel chats about past challenges and future opportunities.  (Watch the video here)

Until next time, 

Image: Pictoral Parade/Getty Images

Today on About.com…

Why we need Black History Month.

USA wins GOLD! Learn about snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg.

6 African-American autobiographies you should read this month.

8 bad decisions that could ruin your credit score.

Forget the gym: burn calories while cleaning your home.

Make a difference: Top ten inspirational documentaries.