From the AP via Yahoo News:
SEATTLE - A woman attacked a karaoke singer belting out Coldplay on Thursday night, telling him he "sucked" before she pushed and punched him to get him to stop singing, bar staff said. The man was singing "Yellow" when it happened.
"It took three or four of us to hold her down," bartender Robert Willmette said.
....
Patrol officers and detectives then arrived at the neighborhood bar and blocked off the street, which inflamed the woman's rage even more, a police report said. Before police could handcuff the woman, she headbutted the off-duty officer at least twice.
I thought Seattle folks were nice people. I guess the rain and lack of sunlight gets to them sometimes.
ok, Seattle people are "nice."
ReplyDeletebut as someone who lives here now I would suggest you read THIS.
it is beautiful up here. the scenery is amazing. I take an hour long ferry commute on a gorgeous ride home. The vegetables and seafood are so fresh.
and in a year we are leaving it all behind and moving back to Chicago.
go read that article. it is all true.
That's my hometown, more or less. And, er, yeah, it does. But darkness and rain aren't excuses, in August. (Summers there are better than anywhere else on the planet.)
ReplyDeleteMy brother lives there and I can tell you it has done nothing good for this temperament. As far as I'm concerned it's an extraordinarily beautiful place to visit (and I'd settle for the lush green grass and the flowers and the other beauties at the botanical gardens and skip the mountains). Living there requires too much light deprivation for me (and apparently my Danish kin).
ReplyDeleteBut I'll ask the dumb question here, what is this "Yellow" song? Would it make anyone go off the deep end? And do sane (well, relatively speaking) people frequent karaoke bars?
Dennis, I read the article. The town that I live in is much like Seattle as described in the article. Folks are "nice", but don't try to break into their social circle. If your grandmother wasn't "from here", then, forget it. The irony is that my great-grandfather was "from here", but he moved to NO, so he doesn't count. Eff 'em.
ReplyDeleteNew Orleans was not like that. We loved folks from other places, because they brought diversity to the city. If you wanted access to the highest echelons of society in NO, that was entirely different, but there were many more of the rest of us who welcomed strangers to the point of actually including them in the social circle. That's one thing I love about the city. That's why folks who move there like NO, because they are welcomed and accepted into social circles.
Klady, here's a bit of info about "Yellow" from Wiki.
I've been to Seattle, and it's a lovely place, but I could not live there. The lack of sunlight in the winter months would get to me, and it would send my husband over the edge. He already gets the "glooms" in January and February here.
Kirston, you're right. It's lovely there in the summer. I didn't mean to offend or other native native Seattleites. Actually, my comment on the tough broad was meant as a joke. I do know a couple who are moving away from the area because the woman of the pair has gone into a deeper depression with each winter she spends there.
I loved Chicago when I visited there, and I would prefer living there to Seattle, but it's too damned cold for this old body.
I read the article, and have concluded none of you are from around here. Let's get together and talk about it some time. :-)
ReplyDeleteI would have to say the article is fairly accuate, and there certainly is a "Seattle freeze." I think the author failed to mention an important component for the lack of community, something that would assumed to not be imortant for most Seattleites.
Some friends of mine just moved to Texarkana. As they traveled from place to place, lining up services and shopping, whoever was attending to them recognized their non-native dialect (Of course, Seattleites don't think that they have an "accent".), began to learn more about them, and would ask if they had "found a church yet."
In Seattle, one would not assume that one is looking for a church, and even if one did, you wouldn't ask another which one. That would be like asking someone who they voted for in any given election or how much they made last year.
My point being, as the Northwest moved away from church culture (And it has a LONG history of that. This is not new.), an important source for community has been lost. Then to make matters worse, the churches that seem to be best at community are the conservative, evangelical ones. Many "mainline" churches seem to be learning disabled on this matter.
It is certainly true that in the Northwest, community probably won't come to you; you have to go find it, finding people of a common interest.
The weather in the winter can get tough, with plenty of gray skies. Leaving for work in the cold, wet dark, and returning back home in the cold, wet dark can get difficult. However, late spring, summer, and early fall are beautiful, and there's no way I'd avoid the mountains. I'd send a picture, but I don't have Mimi's e-mail address.
A friend here is a transplant, too. She tells a story about one of her first efforts to crack the Seattle "nice." She was taking a women's yoga class and every week she talked to one of her classmates. They always had friendly conversations about the class, traffic, weather, etc. So one day after class she asked her classmate if she wanted to join her for a cup of coffee. To which her classmate said, very politely, "Thank you. But no. I'm sorry, but I'm just too busy right now for any more friendships." And the next time she saw her in class it was Seattle nice all over again.
ReplyDeleteChicago is cold during the winters but the summers are glorious. And the people are friendly. We partied with our neighbors. All the time. In our building we had each others keys so we could let each other's dogs out and etc. We had a neighborhood pub that we could always count on finding neighbors at. Coworkers were friends. Friends of friends quickly became friends.
In Chicago saying "Let's do something" usually means get out your calendar and let's plan a time to get together. Here in Seattle "Let's do something" means "please leave me alone".
I understand the midwest.
I don't get Seattle.
So, KJ, if I moved to Seattle, you'd have me over for a meal?
ReplyDeleteI understand the midwest.
Dennis, depends upon what you mean by the Midwest. There are parts of the Midwest where I could not live.
Sure, Grandmère! Let's get together some time. ;-)
ReplyDeleteKJ, how about we set a date now for the get together.
ReplyDeleteIt's got nothing to do with being nice and everything to do with people being subjected to Coldplay. I believe Madpriest will agree with me; the guy got off easy.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I haven't had this experience here any more than any other place I've moved to ... I'm from the midwest, and I experienced it there ... in my home town, and when I returned to another area .. and I experienced it each time I moved in the greater Los Angeles Area. People are either too busy, or too self-involved to reach out, no matter where they live, in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteWas it the song, or the man's rendition of it that really ticked off that woman, I wonder?
ReplyDeletePadre Mickey, I expect you are right. It was the song, and the man deserved what he got.
ReplyDeleteSerena, I have never lived in Seattle, and you, Kirstin, KJ, and Dennis are the only people I "know" from there. The story was in my morning paper yesterday, and it made me laugh, so I put it up for you folks from Seattle.
Assume that any comments after a post like this one come with a strong dose of irony. My comments about my town are, for the most part, true. Other newcomers (I'm now at 38 years) agree with me.
Pat, it sounds like she was ripe for ticking off. If Padre Mickey says it's Coldplay, then I must believe him.
ReplyDeleteI visited Seattle when I was a little kid and liked it then. But I don't think I would be able to handle the sleep deprivation either.
ReplyDeleteWeird story.
They say about Minneapolis too, nice place to visit, but hard to "break in" socially.
Diane, I have a niece who lives in Lakeville. She seems to like it pretty well. She is not a native.
ReplyDeletethat's great! I'm from here, never had to "break in" myself, just heard we weren't as friendly as we thought... Lakeville's a nice rural cum-suburb... still growing a lot...
ReplyDeleteGrandmère, I'll get back to you as soon as I find my calendar.
ReplyDeletethere is a very very funny spoof of the typical Seattle type that appears in The Seattle Weekly called "Ask An Uptight Seattleite."
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite issues of this column, explaining oh so well what life is like here, include this and this and my very favorite column.
that little weekly column will tell you more about this place than anything I can say, really
KJ, I see that you're a true Seattleite at heart.
ReplyDeleteDennis, I think I get it. Hilarious.
I'm sure that nice KJ is ever ready, carrying two plastic bags.
Grandmere, you didn't offend me at all.
ReplyDeleteIt may be telling, though, that when I walked into my church in San Francisco for the first time, I was completely knocked over by the welcome. :-)
Grandmere, you didn't offend me at all.
ReplyDeleteKirstin, thanks be to God for that. I did not intend to offend anyone.
Grandmère, of course I can handle TWO dumps with ONE biodegradable bag. You do remember that I am a Seattleite by birth, right?
ReplyDeleteKJ, I should have known that you'd be two jumps ahead of the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteI'd have let you know. But don't worry; you're incapable of offending me.
ReplyDelete