Plenty of poor whites, particularly immigrants and rural folks, got in that way too.

Lots of good shit in this thread. And equal amounts of bullshit. On both the "pro-" and "anti-" sports sides.

Reply to Avatar's reply to my reply …

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints : Christianity ::
The Nation of Islam : Islam

Religion - particularly but not exclusively the Abrahamic monotheisms - serves all the functions Avatar et al. state. But if that's *all* they did, they wouldn't have any hold on people.

don't forget the matriarch, Mrs. Olsen, purveyor of stimulant crystals refined from plants grown in the mountains of Colombia.

@Dwayne - What a coincidence, I too ride the J Church. I wonder - how many AVClubbers live in Noe Valley?

belated congratulations on the successful thirdsies

The content/tone thing here reminds me a bit of the early scene in Natural Born Killers, where the father's horribleness is played as a laugh-track-heavy sitcom. I suspect it might be intentional.

The car is obviously symbolic of Moody's L.A. career. Wasn't it a shiny, new reward for his coming out to the Coast to adapt his book into a movie? As his career and personal life have devolved into a shambles, so has the car.

What about The Salton Sea?

@LeeBabySimms

Omar Little was an Ensemble Darkhorse, never meant to be a major character, but stood out mainly, as you said, on account of his supreme badassitude. No spoilers here - I envy you the discovery you're making - I'll just confirm your hopes are not in vain.

Like Warren, I too saw this in the '80s as a teenager.

I'll wait for the scene to get uploaded to xvideos or redtube or one of those others. It'll give me a break from that Monica Belucci clip.

I'm still bummed about Half-Sack. Huge awesomeness potential gone to waste.

When McNulty sobered up and moved in with the wharf cop (sorry I forgot her name, and she's great, too), he was downright upstanding. It was really sad when he fell off again.

Lots and lots of rich, powerful dudes (and even not-so-rich and only moderately-powerful dudes) engage in Third World underage sex tourism, so it's hardly implausible or "over the top" to include it here. And it would take the threat of something heinous like that being exposed to make someone like Cutshaw back down.

I'll be in my bunk …

Have to re-watch, but maybe those were one-week pill boxes?