Photo via ManicTrout Jewelry

While working on last week's story about the Washington Nationals' Opening Day doldrums, I learned that the greatest American Monopoly player of all time lives among us.

Dana Terman, a Nats fan now living Gaithersburg and who grew up in Montgomery County, won the U.S. Monopoly Championship in 1977 and 1979, and was the runner-up in 1983. Terman also placed second in the World Championships in 1980.

Is that neat or what?

Back then, when everything everywhere was better, winning the national title in Monopoly was a really big deal.

Parker Bros., the owner of Monopoly in the game's heyday (it's since been acquired by Hasbro), would go all out for the competition.

For his winning the U.S. title, Terman and his parents were flown across the pond on the Concorde, as Parker Bros. bought up every seat on the supersonic trans-Atlantic jet that at the time was the height of traveling opulence, before everybody was scared away from the big, fast bird by one lousy crash in 2000.

He was a guest on Tomorrow, NBC's latenight show hosted by Tom Snyder in New York, and closer to home was also interviewed by Baltimore wunderkind Oprah Winfrey (before she was Oprah).

"I didn't know who she was," says Terman, 55.

He even had a necklace named after him, the Dana Hotel/Motel Necklace, which was a silver chain with a Monopoly hotel attached. It's still available.

"I found out later the jewelry designer thought the Dana Terman who played Monopoly was a woman," laughs Terman. "I contacted her and told her I'm not a woman."

The Washington Post wrote several feature stories on Terman's gamesmanship.

Sports Illustrated ran a piece on the U.S. champ's run toward global runner-up status in 1980.

The most driven contestant was Dana (Terrible) Terman, 24, a chunky, curly-haired car salesman from Wheaton, Md. Terman had finished sixth [in the World Championships] in 1977, and he had vowed not to fall short again.

He studied the trading habits of the various nationalities represented in the tournament, and he memorized statistics so that he "wouldn't have to think about probabilities any more than Willie Mays had to think about catching a fly ball."

Terman psyched himself up relentlessly. On the plane he read 1000 Ways To Win Monopoly Games. He wore a T shirt that announced I'M MONOPOLY MAD, and while other competitors ate six-course dinners and put-putted around on motorbikes, Terman fasted and jogged. "The Greek ideal," he said. "A sound mind in a sound body."

The Monopoly world championships, back before Hasbro ran the show, were held in exotic worldly locales like Monte Carlo and Bermuda.

"Now they're in Las Vegas," says Terman. "It's just not the same."

Nah, it ain't.

Does anybody still play Monopoly?

Sad, sad times for any child of the '70s: Don Kirshner is dead.

Kirshner, 76, died of heart failure Monday in Boca Raton, Fla.

Around here, Kirshner's show, Rock Concert, aired weekly on WRC-4 after Saturday Night Live, and for a decade was appointment television for me and all my fellow Northern Virginia ne'erdowells. I delivered the Washington Post throughout my childhood, and only the lord and my Post distributor know how many Sunday papers arrived late on local doorsteps because I'd stayed up til 2:30 a.m. watching Rock Concert. (Alas, the 90-minute TV show died long before Kirshner.)

He introduced bands from every genre and talent level to me and the masses—nobody else in music programming had the guts to showcase the songstylings of both the Ramones AND Cheryl Ladd. For better or worse, I added Uriah Heep and Van Halen LPs to my collection after hearing 'em on Kirshner's show.

The father of a friend of mine has hung out with Kirshner for a long time down in Florida, and, knowing of my affection for the guy, as a prank/treat he got Kirshner to call me out of the blue a couple years ago.

As soon as Kirshner got "Hello" out of his mouth, I started gushing about how important a figure he was to me and everybody I grew up with and how I hope he knows he's a hero to a generation of suburban dirtballs.

I meant every word.

courtesy of D.C. Sports Bog

Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato, the poster children of the Prague Spring for Redskins fans, have been dubbed "Dumb" and "Dumber" in much of the agit prop that Redskins security has worked so hard to keep out of FedExField.

Awesome trivia: In "Dumb and Dumber," 1994 movie that informs the insurgency, there's a character named "Karl Swanson."

Really. You can look it up.

And in real life, as outlined by Paul Farhi in today's Washington Post, there's a Karl Swanson who's the third wheel in the Snyder/Cerrato continuum. (Full disclosure: I'm briefly in the story.) The flesh-and-blood Swanson has been Snyder's spokesperson since before he took over the Redskins. Swanson and Cerrato are the longest-tenured Skins staffers in the Snyder regime. They ride golf carts with the boss, and Swanson drives.

I don't know Karl Swanson much at all, but over the years he has returned a huge percentage of my phone calls and emails, even though long ago he grasped the likelihood was that Snyder wasn't going to come out great in whatever City Paper wrote about him. So I've come to admire Swanson a good bit. He's got the toughest job in Washington.

But dang if I didn't giggle when I Googled upon the "Dumb and Dumber" character  with his name. Makes his voyage to Redskins Park seem like destiny.

To the Staff:

I’d like to thank Phil Bennett for his extraordinary contributions to The Post newsroom and in particular for his assistance in helping to smooth the leadership transition over the last several months.

Phil is a brilliant journalist, whose piercing intelligence and story genius have been among The Post’s great assets in recent years. He’s also successfully taken on some of our most difficult and complex organizational challenges, leading recent efforts to improve and in some cases streamline our news operations. While Phil and I have worked together only a short time, I will miss his deep knowledge of the newsroom and the company, his instinct for how we should approach the news, and his consistently sound judgment.

I will be working on a new leadership structure that addresses the departures of both Phil and Jim Brady as quickly as possible.

Please join me in thanking Phil for his exceptional service over the years and in wishing him the very best in his new assignment with Don and future endeavors in journalism.

Marcus