Seattlest: Seattle Through Red Colored Glasses

8Bit Jake

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 09:31:37 -0800

Row =! Road

josh

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:17:57 -0800

Although I've never been brace enough to try them out, I'm pretty sure the silver space toilets are free. And there's a Barnes and Noble in the retail core part of downtown. Take that Portland!

Courtney Nash

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:47:13 -0800

I love it when someone gets bitch-slapped with the OED. That always makes my day.

James

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:08:52 -0800

I love Wikipedia, but I trust HistoryLink more. "Skid Road" is the term that "Skid Row" came from; according to the OED, the earliest use of "Skid Row" is in 1931, long after Yesler's mill -- which didn't process skidded logs, per the HistoryLink essay -- folded. No way was Seattle the origin of "Skid Row," since it wasn't the origin of "Skid Road."

8Bit Jake

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:51:57 -0800

Skid Road is came from New York but Skid Row is all Seattle. "The first skid row was Skid Road (Yesler Way) in Seattle," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_Row

Seth

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:11:07 -0800

All I know is, Portland's downtown has really attractive brass water fountains and a Barnes & Noble downtown, whereas in Seattle we have pay toilets and a Ross Dress for Less. Well, we also have a Brooks Brothers, but that doesn't count because I say so. Besides, to New Yorkers, Times Square is as much a part of the neighborhood as Disneyland is to Los Angelinos. It's not somewhere that you go to hang out, it's a place where you are as much of a tourist as the Canucks and Portlanders and other inferior beings. If you can't figure out what point I'm trying to make, neither can I.

Dan

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:37:21 -0800

Seth, it's a little weird that you use Portland as an example of an immaculate downtown and Dan over at the slog frames it as overrun with bummery, but what's really fucked up is that pdx actually is both more sterile and more, uh, skeevy than seattle. And there is more to Portland than dinner parties.

James

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:31:48 -0800

Actually, "Skid Row" predates Seattle -- it probably came from New York (state). Check out Wordorigins.org's page on the term. There's a lot of info from the Underground Tour that turns out to be, well, wrong...

8Bit Jake

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:24:37 -0800

Also the term Skid Row started in Seattle. What do you expect from a city that was built with the taxing of whorehouses back in the gold rush days?

8Bit Jake

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:19:16 -0800

Hey that is Post Mark Sidran and post Eyeman Seattle he was talking about. Man this guy is a real "Compassionate Conservative". The radical right Republicans really really really hate Seattle and King county and King county is not crazy about the radical right Republicans. Congressman Jim McDurmott got over 80% of the vote. That is one of the reasons why I love it here.

Seth

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:59:49 -0800

Seattle isn't just pre-Giuliani, it's pre-Koch. Remember, not long ago we had an contentious debate here about whether it should be a crime to defecate in the street. That said, there's plenty of grime in New York City still, just as close to Times Square as "The Turf" is to Pike Place Market. Grime is the mark of an interesting city. Look at Portland--an immaculate downtown--but what really ever happens there except for white people having house parties?