Go straight to Dundee...

[ggreig]

...do not pass Go, do not collect £200.

The Aberdeen version of Monopoly will send evil-doers to Dundee instead of the more traditional jail, after opinion was canvassed in the granite city.

While Dundee is not my favourite place, it's fair to say it's not as bad as it was twenty years ago and the city deserves credit for bringing itself round. The city centre is quite nice these days, not something I could have said in the 1980s. I also owe it a couple of degrees and a job that lets me stay near my friends in St. Andrews, so I can't be too down on it. All the same, I thought any random globe-trotting Dundee-phobes reading this would enjoy the story. (Hi, myceliumme! ;-)

Comments

[tobyaw]

So where would 'jail' be for the Kingsbarns Monopoly?

[qidane.livejournal.com]

Kingsbarns?

[ggreig]

I don't think there's anywhere obvious. The nearest smaller neighbours would be Boarhills or Dunino.

Maybe you could be sent to stand in the phone box or bus shelter, both of which get subjected to vandalism I'm afraid, even in a wee place like Kingsbarns.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

In Fife, I think the place to send someone is the Dunbog Triangle. It exists. I've been there - and returned!
It's a strange, remote place with a triangular village green, with (possibly vandalised) telephone box, a graveyard and... very sparse habitation. I found it quite disturbing. The graveyard was livelier.

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

I believe that historically it was Freuchie. People sent away from court at Falkland Palace were sent to Freuchie, a few miles away. Hence, I was told, the phase "Awa' tae Freuchie tae eat meece".

Or so more than one of the locals told me when I lived there. It might even have been mentioned on the tour of the palace (although it's years since I went on that tour so I may be misremembering that bit).

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Freuchie is at least OK.
In Dunbog, there is nothing... Only the ominous triangle of grass. With the phone box. And the graves...

[myceliumme.livejournal.com]

Curious what you were doing there

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Visiting General Nisbet Balfour (1744-1823), in the graveyard. He's a former St As alumnus, and featured in my article which the Alumnus Chronicle banned the other year.

[myceliumme.livejournal.com]

which the Alumnus Chronicle banned the other year
WTHF? Intrigued. (I don't think I get AC - ST A has disowned me!)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

You probably just need to send them a reminder of your address. It can be done on-line.
St As Alumnus Relations.

In 2004, I wrote an article asking why we didn't make more of the guys who had served their country in the American War - not just militarily, but also the Secretary to the Peace Commission - as well as one of the Rebels. The article , which was far from being an angry polemic, and outlined the stories of Nisbet Balfour, Rev. James MacLagan (regimental chaplain and noted Gaelic scholar), and Adam Ferguson, was thought to be too controversial, however. This was the reply I had:
"it was the sensitive nature of the content of the article rather than its academic style that gave rise to the Committee's decision. The Committee felt that they had to be cautious about the possible reaction to your article of a potentially significant proportion of our alumni".
Which translates as, it might piss off the rich Americans on whom the university is excessively dependent re: fees and alumnus donations.

[myceliumme.livejournal.com]

Crail - rhymes with 'jail'

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

ROFL!
I'd have thought Peterhead would be a more obvious one, as it has a jail?

[myceliumme.livejournal.com]

here's why I still bear it a grudge. I note that while you work there, you live elsewhere!

[ggreig]

I note that while you work there, you live elsewhere!

Doesn't everyone? ...[realises] Oh, the humanity!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Re: your link there: did it explode because it saw New Jersey - which has something of the same image-problem as Dundee?

[ggreig]

It seems a likely explanation.