Comments on Our Nation's Finest

It could be that he detested Bush and Cheney but thought Dan was cute. :-) Occam's razor and all.

That we know of ...

Actually, Megan, I did start a war.

Not to be crass, but there's a joke to be made about Dan "shooting a man in his face". I'm just too much of a lady to make it.

See, you outed yourself as a non-native when you said "Right on, man."

Seattle natives don't tack on "man," they do that weird thing where they emphasize the first word: "Right on!"

Homeless Guy pegged you as part of the invading hipster army embodied by out-of-towner Dan Savage at the helm of The Stranger.

As Sachi said, that could be a recommendation of Dan rather than an insult ;)

Joey beat me to it. I was going to write, "Dan never shot a man in the face with a shot gun. Now, if you define 'shooting' more, er, liberally, I'm sure he has shot more than a few men on the face..."

Savage has been in Seattle as long as I've been here (11 years). How long do you have to live in this town before you're not an "out-of-towner?"
BTW who fucking cares if you went to grade school here? It's easy not to move to another town. Sit on your ass and stay. Why does that make you so pure.

Actually, Jasen (the man who experienced the interaction with this bum) is the one who said "Right On, Man," and he was born and raised in Woodinville. He has lived in Seattle for years. That counts as being native. That's just how Jasen talks.

Please don't descend into the dead-horse argument about how long a person has to live somewhere before they can consider themselves local.

Dear Bill:

I grew up in Evanston, IL, so I'm not sure who you're fuming at, there, but please don't let that get in the way of your righteous outrage.

And Callie, Woodinville is borderline, arguably in another cultural zone entirely. That may be the way Jasen talks, but people don't learn to talk in a vacuum.

How long one remains an "out of towner," in Seattle or anywhere else, is no set number of years, but rather a matter of how long one resists going native.

I've lived here for 15 years, actually. And I'm only 27.

Though not it's crown jewel, Woodenville is very much within Seattle's cultural circumference - just as we here in SF have a notion of "Bay Area" - insomuch that young adults moving into the city from outlying areas are probably as common as folk that grew up within city limits.

*Sigh*, I remember when Dan was older than me.

What is the obsession in this town about being a 'native' and an 'out-of-towner?' Is it just an excuse by natives to feel superior, or is it a knee-jerk defense from out-of-towners who feel abused by the locals? Either way, as a native (Eastside brat, recently reformed) I feel that this must stop. Peace and unity for all! In this spirit, I suggest we all go out and get drunk. Does Saturday work for everyone?

I actually love how you folks in Seattle fight over who's a native and who's not--it's like watchig retarded people fighting over who gets to eat dog shit.

Hey, the "out of towner" versus local issue isn't a Seattle-only problem. Its fairly ubiquitous unless you're somewhere like NYC where transplants out-number the natives. What is the big deal about it? Anyone who has lived anywhere other than their hometown for any great length of time runs into a conversational quirk answering the question "so where are you from?". Being an area native is a coincidence of birth. Dan's lived in Seattle longer than me, though I was born and partially raised there.

At the risk of being slanderous, I think that it's funnier to know the whole story. The homeless guy in question actually said, "Fuck Dan Savage! He will never touch one of my little brother's skateboarding boyfriends ever again!"

And, Robotslave, I am totally native. Born and raised, man. Deal.