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From newser.com: A Massachusetts town has decided it’s time to finally lift a ban on arcade games it established when Ms. Pac-Man was new. At a town meeting, the residents of Marshfield voted 203-175 to lift the ban that was introduced in 1982.
What bans will they lift next? Discotheques? Speakeasies? Blacksmith shops?
The ban was voted in by residents who feared arcade games would bring an undesirable element to the small town and upheld in 1994 and 2011. “This is a progressive step in that it protects life in a small town from an urban-type honky-tonk environment,”
Let’s break this down: “Urban-type” (relating to the city), “Honky-tonk” (relating to a type of country music)… so is what he’s saying is that video games will lead to the wide-spread consumption of country music throughout the inner city?
The ban was successfully challenged by a resident who says he found it unjust even when he was in the fourth grade. “I was sitting thinking, ‘Why is this illegal in my town, to have fun with my friends,'” he says, recalling a visit to an arcade in a neighboring town. Six business owners say they are considering installing games, and while it’s not clear whether they plan to bring in games from the decades the town missed, Chris Taylor at Mashable would love it “if Marshfield suddenly went hog wild and became a town filled with retro gaming devices.” If it “becomes the arcade town that time forgot, well, praise the Pac-Man and pass the quarters,” he writes.
Next, comedian Bob Smiley (aka “not Time Hawkins”) calls into the show. Bob lives in an area that could be considered “slightly affluent”. Let’s put it this way, whenever there’s a fire, the firefighters only use bottled water. Now, in this fine community, Bob’s new neighbor wanted him to come on over and see her new cat. What Bob wasn’t prepared for was the immense obesity that the feline boasted. When your cat looks like a fuzzy chair, you can’t drop that on a guy and not expect a few comedic barbs headed in the cat’s direction. I mean, when the cat is more than “big boned”, but actually looks like it ate a bone, then you need to put the thing on a diet… or at least warn people that it’s coming.
Finally, Matt Jernigan joins the show. Ever his own harshest critic, Matt doesn’t think that he’s funny. Luckily, the people who sign his checks do. Matt actually had hopes of becoming a musician/actor, so falling into a career of comedy was his backup plan. His career actually had its start with him doing impressions of actors he admired singing parody songs, such as Katherine Hepburn singing Guns and Roses’ “Patience”.