TOPEKA, Kan. – The son of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is peddling a board game titled “Don’t Drop the Soap,” a prison-themed game he created as part of a class project at the Rhode Island School of Design.

John Sebelius, 23, has the backing of his mother and father, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Sebelius. Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said both parents “are very proud of their son John’s creativity and talent.”

John Sebelius is selling the game on his Internet site for $34.99, plus packaging, shipping and handling. The contact information on the Web site lists the address of the governor’s mansion. Corcoran said the address will change when John Sebelius moves.

The game also goes on sale starting Jan. 31 at a shop called Hobbs in the college town of Lawrence.

The site describes “Don’t Drop the Soap” as a game “Where no one playing enters through the front door!”

“Fight your way through 6 different exciting locations in hopes of being granted parole,” the site says. “Escape prison riots in The Yard, slip glass into a mob boss’ lasagna in the Cafeteria, steal painkillers from the nurse’s desk in the Infirmary, avoid being cornered by the Aryans in the Shower Room, fight off Latin Kings in Gang War, and try not to smoke your entire stash in The Hole.” The game includes five tokens representing a bag of cocaine, a handgun and three characters: wheelchair-using ‘Wheelz,” muscle-flexing “Anferny” and business suit-clad “Sal ‘the Butcher.’

Program puts chaplains in bar to lend an ear

CARLISLE, Pa. – Barflies, forget having to talk your troubles over with a bartender.

A pastor plans to put teams of chaplains in local bars in this central Pennsylvania town so they can lend a sympathetic ear to patrons who may need one.

The chaplains won’t preach against drinking or evangelize when the program starts at Market Cross Pub, organizer Chuck Kish said.

“We’re simply going to be there to help anybody who wants it. Sometimes people really just want somebody they can talk to who is not going to be judgmental, but be sympathetic,” he said.

“Some people may think this would be a strange place to find a chaplain. But we need to go where the people are,” said Kish, a 44-year-old senior pastor at the Bethel Assembly of God in Carlisle.

Chaplains will work in teams, one male and one female, and will be in the bar for about three hours on the first Friday of every month, he said. The program is slated to start next month at one pub, with the hope it will be expanded.

Market Cross Pub owner Jeff Goss said he did a double-take when Kish first approached him.

“I thought, a chaplain in a restaurant and bar? And then I thought, that makes sense,” Goss said.

Bartender Liz Horn said she’d have no problem referring a customer to a chaplain.

“Sometimes a bar is a place where people go when they’re down,” she said.