They took my gold teeth away... so now I am silver until I pay them their pound of flesh.

I guess no one explained to you before how the hyphen is used =/

It's used to join words (it's got another use as well, but the context rules it out), so the proper way to read it would be corncob pipe shotgun-wielding southerner.

Just helping ya there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corncob_pipe#Corncob

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_South

Goddamn, English is your first language ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_language ) and I, who learned it at a later age has to teach you not only about it, but also about your country's own history and cultural stereotypes. Not bad, considering I am fluent in three languages as well as moderately versed in their respective culture and history. There's a fourth I can only read, as well. I could also insult you in at least two other languages, but it doesn't matter - afterall you only speak English and need lessons both on it and the history of the United States. Not bad, considering you live in Minnesota. You know what? I can afford a mistake here and there.

Ah, I forgot classic Latin and Attic Greek - but all I remember are old sayings, you know... conventional wisdom. One in particular springs to mind.. Stultorum numerus infinitus est. If you care about it, google will return alternative wordings since classic Latin uses declensions so the position of the elements within the sentence is somewhat irrelevant. Somewhat. I might have screwed a declension there tho - it's been a hell of a long time since I last read anything in Latin.

By the way, spelling nazi isn't usually used - grammar nazy is the most used term for those who have nothing to say but petty remarks about grammar and spelling.

Oh, I guess this means the last word is mine now! So this means you must reply!

@Squilliam: ah, the trial month expired... I heard there are some ebay sellers with discounted subscriptions. Whatever you do, just do NOT input your credit card number, I heard it's a trip through customer service hell until they stop auto-renewing it.

Oh, I'm well aware of how to use hyphens.  Although I would have hyphenated it differently, the usage I ascribed to you is quite common even in publications.  (I'm referring to rendering wielding a hypothetical "corncob pipe shotgun" as corncob-pipe-shotgun-wielding vs. corncob pipe shotgun-wielding.)  More importantly, the alternative interpretation would seem to be that you were calling me (among other things) a corncob pipe.  Were you?  If not, did you omit "smoking" or something from that sentence? 

Considering I do indeed live in Minnesota, it interests me that you would knowingly give me stereotypes specific to the American South.  Minnesotans have their own stereotypes, doncha know, and even aside from our own we certainly would not have certain Southern ones. 

I'll readily admit that "spelling nazi" seems to be a much less common term, but surely you'd agree that it's more correct for what you were accusing me of.  (Although if "nothing to say but..." is part of your definition, then both are clearly wrong.)  And what's with the sudden "nazy" misspelling? 

Spelling and grammar are (as I'm sure you are aware) different things.  So if I had initially been correcting you on stuff like "and I, who learned it at a later age has to teach you" needing a second comma after age to go with the one after I, then it would have been another story.  Also, I believe it should be "have" not "has".  "I ... have to teach you". 

Do you realize that you may have created through your (previously wrong) accusations a self-fulfilling prophecy?  In this thread at least, it is becoming humorous to play the part of the monster you called me.  Although I'm spoiling it by actually responding to all points instead of just the minimal excuse to claim the final response.

PS3 will catch up in time.

*cough been out for an extra year *cough

The gap was 5.5 million at PS3 launch.

 Contradict yourself much? The first bolded statement of yours is correct; the system with the best games is an opinion. It's also just the view of one person, not the entire buying public. People will buy the system they think has the best games. And going by sales figures, coupled with the fact that the 360 has continued to increase its lead over the PS3 after its launch, more people seem to think the 360 has better games, or that the difference between the games is small enough to not warrant the extra markup of the PS3. If the other thing you said, the second thing I bolded, were true, then the PS3 would have already smiten the 360, and be knocking on (or passing) the Wii's door.

Back to the topic. I congratulate Microsoft for having a system that is seeing considerably more worldwide success. They are the force that is doing what was needed- an industry correction. Sony did it to Nintendo in 1995, now Microsoft gets to do it to Sony. And I wish them the best of luck in it. (Now if we can only get our last roommate on board to get a 360...)

Like a clockwork, as expected, there you are.

Your arguments have no weight at all =/

Ooops, the last word is mine again.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

@viper1: there's some argument going on there... consumer sell-through was around the 5.5 million mark indeed, but X360 shipments at the time were much higher, 7-8 million maybe? MS used to overship a lot.

You, on the other hand, are late. 

'Late' is a relative concept.

(Your signature encouraged me to rebutt)