Etiquette Question
Say you’re riding home on your bike on a nice sunny evening, and you’re a few blocks from home on 24th Ave behind the post office at 23rd and Union, and you see a man and a woman huddled together against the chain link fence, and while he is busy lighting up some kind of pipe and billowing smoke, she glances over at you with a jittery dear-in-the-headlights look and says “what’s up?” What is the proper reply?
(Note to Seattle: there be a whole lotta crack smokin going on around 23rd and Union. All day every day. Odd, isn’t it? Gosh, it’s so un-Seattle! But there it is, a mere half-mile from Seattle’s nucleus of hipsterdom a.k.a. Pike/Pine to the west, and only a mile from multi-million dollar lakeside homes in Madrona to the east. Too bad the meltdown stalled a six-story mixed-use project that would have been about the best possible medicine for street crime. Anyhoo, I have to wonder how many of those folks who frequently enjoy a good hit of crack are concerned about the lack of progress on TOD in Seattle. Any crack smoking hugeasscity readers out there? C’mon, fess up, it’s anonymous!)
Things often look a little more dear in the headlights. Glossy. Fabulous. Out-of-reach.
I think I’d say “Hiya!” in response to “what’s up?” in your scenario, but whatever I’d say, it’d be dorky.
Clearly a question for the Uptight Seattleite.
“Too bad the meltdown stalled a six-story mixed-use project that would have been about the best possible medicine for street crime”
Isn’t this a story in itself? I haven’t heard anything about this being stalled: last I heard (and this was a long time ago) they were planning on starting construction this September. Have things changed?
Whassup. Howdy.
Hey whitey, if you don’t like crack, don’t move into the central district.
I usually say “What’s up?” That’s because I’m not socially inept.
I’d likely say nothing and just keep going, but I’ve got the big-city keep-your-head-down thing going on still.
First, are you a police officer? Because that makes a difference.
If not, and you are, say, a Caucasian developer of six-story mixed use condo marvelousness, you say “Hey, a one-year lease comes with 6 oz. of that shit, granite countertops, a box of razor blades and eleven months’ free rent! You people call my people!”
If, on the other hand, you are Mayor Nickles, you…oh, no, you’re on your bike: you’re not Mayor Nickles.
“….my CRANKSET is worth more than you. JESUS, I need a martini.”
There you go, the gay white well to do liberal coming and stripping all character from the neighborhood he moved into, err took over. Pass the pipe to Dan!
For the record, I never said I didn’t like crack.
Are you certain that it was crack?
Marijuana is often smoked out of a pipe.
I will confess to having smoked marijuana and recently. Most of those pike/pine hipsters probably do the same and on a regular basis.
not sure if a magical mixed-use building with its proactive, 911-calling whities is the only cure that is needed around those parts. besides, the great thing about crack is that it is completely portable…
take your PBR tallboy outta the bottle cage and tip a salud to them; let them know you come in peace.
And hilariously about 80 feet from the East Precinct’s drop-in office for officers on the corner of 23rd & Union! I’m getting the feeling that our cops are of the keystone variety when it comes to stuff happening right under their noses.
Well, I found an ounce of crack on the sidewalk behind my house near MLK and Cherry. Does that count?