Old Lusty Losing Its Grip?

The Lusty Lady is bold if nothing else; perched defiantly as a beacon of sleaze in the heart of downtown, eagerly eliciting disgust or curiosity from passing tourists. Every big city has at least one. Seattle’s two most prominent "Jerk Joints" (Déjà Vu being the sister) just happen to sit on both sides of the tourist sucking Pike Place Market. Joyfully unavoidable, the prudes have to stomach the godlessness for the brief hell they are in the vicinity.

Inside the Lusty Lady, the booth culture as we understand it is unquestionably sketchy. Health codes, smealth codes. The seldom-ignored exterior, on the other hand, offers one of the more visible, smut-minded experiences for hundreds of miles. We like to think disgusted tourists obsess on these witty, skank phrases as they trudge back to their traditionally valued counties, fully convinced the West Coast has in fact lost its mind.

So it comes with a little disappointment that today’s "message" is not on par with the uplifting, perverted greatness we’ve come to expect.

Today’s lackluster "March Nudeness" scores a disappointing 2.6 on the Sleazy Marquee Scale. While capitalizing on the timeliness of the basketball tournament, it isn’t on par with classics like "Happy Spanksgiving" and the innumerable slough of 6th grade variations of the word "Come" we've all seen. As Seattlest can reluctantly attest, not every day is a winner and even steady favorites like the Lusty Lady Marquee are occasionally off.

So come on Lusty! Get a grip! Every shot can’t be a score, but if sex and basketball have taught us anything, it’s all about the rebound.

Photograph courtesy of Erick98122