I think it's in Concord or thereabouts, which is one of about five cities and towns that are technically not Charlotte but which everyone considers as such because we have no geography and the city is just a giant sprawl on the landscape that bleeds over all attempts to contain it.

It's so fucking good, you guys.

We have more people than Boston. We are also a cultural wasteland though, which makes it understandable.

To give people directions to where I used to live, I, no lie, have said "head down Sharon Amity, then turn on Sharon, and then stay on it past the intersection with Sharon."

I don't think Asheville has a definition for "too much weed."

Hahaha, fuck yeah! Proud of my fellow Carolinians.

I won't lie, I'm a little mad at the phrase "the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina." 2.6 million people live in our metro area and we're the largest city in the southeast, I don't think you need to specify the state.

Yeah, MGS2 is beautifully weird. It may the least fun game of the original 3 in a lot of ways, but it is my absolute favorite to talk about. I'm a Snake Eater partisan for life, but damn if every conversation I have about the series doesn't come back around to talking about Raiden doing naked cartwheels in a robot's…

Let's be fair, though— issues of taste and sanity never stopped him before.

Oh totally— the story for me worked entirely as a matter of themes and ideas, coupled with some cool visuals and neat scenes. It never really gels into an actual plot, but I dug it for what it was: a chance to hang out and do some amazing shit while Kojima hung out on my couch and bullshitted about lit theory with me.

Yeah, but he also wrote X-Men 2, and X-Men 2 is awesome.

One of the best parts of MGS2 is watching the pile-up as everyone tries to outwit each other and then the game outsmarts its own plot. I get the complaint that it's too clever for its own good, but then again, the game warns you when the final chapter begins with it literally going up its own ass.

Man, I have really complicated feelings about that game. On the one hand, it's one of the best explorations of semiotic theory I've seen in pop culture (a symbol becoming the thing itself, the lack of objective meaning as outside interpretation supplants the truth, language as a subjective tool rather than having…

They still have it, and in the most recent one, it's more useful than ever and can be used in an elaborate assortment of ways, such as putting a pin-up on it and then punching through the front of the box while the enemy is staring.

In Snake's defense, most people in the Metal Gear universe are kind of dumb.

Snake: Hrm… a TV pilot? Like a person who drives a television?
Otacon: No, Snake, a pilot's the first episode of a show. They usually use it to set the tone, and they're often made to try and sell a network on picking up a full series.
Snake: I see. So what you're saying is, this is going to be the start of a new show?
Ot…

Yeah, I'd say that remains the low point of punditry for at least the past year or so.

Correct— the pardon would have, I believe, nullified the original verdict.

I believe this theory is directly contradicted by the tagline "half man, half machine, all cop."

The victim has been identified— I know people were asking if there was some charity or organization they could give to, and there had been a fund organized for her family. It has been verified as legitimate.