The Frederick, MD News Post reported last week that Thurmont resident Curtis L. Powell, Jr., 37, has finally scored over 400,000 points playing Ms. Pac Man, "considered by many game historians to be the best in the Pac-Man series. " Evidently unable to contact busy video game historians about other matters, the Post states that Mr. Powell is the first person to achieve such a high score, "to his knowledge". Though the article is generally quite well researched, its author, Liz Boch, fails to provide one key detail regarding the achievement: whether or not Curtis L. Powell, Jr. is, in fact, retarded. Without this piece of information, I can't decide whether the story is the funniest thing I've ever read or simply the most uplifting. But regardless of whether we're laughing at him or, in case he's disabled, with whatever secret joy retarded people are always so happy about, the story stands as a testamant to our shared humanity. And depending on Mr. Powell, Jr.'s mental faculties, it will also act as a constant reminder of either how embarrassed I am to still be playing video games or how mortififying it is that I could be beaten at Ms. Pac Man by a retard.
If you haven't yet, go read the article.
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