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Sunday, February 4, 2007

Suckery

posted by on February 4 at 17:28 PM

ashtraypdx.jpg

You know what sucks? The super bowl is blasting away on the television in the bar I’m sitting in right now in Portland, Oregon. And you know else sucks? I’m in one of the bars I sit in all day when I sneak down to Portland to write, and one of the reasons I like this bar—where, yes, I sit all day but I waaaaaay overtip to thank the bartender, and I get the hell out if they start to fill up and need the table—is because it doesn’t have WiFi. I’ve become such a web addict that I have to seek out places without WiFi in order to get any work done. (I’m working on an essay for the upcoming This American Life tour.) But this bar has WiFi now. So I’m tossing up a post before I close my computer and get out of here.

And you know what sucks the most? You can still smoke in bars in Portland.

RSS icon Comments

1

Trolling for animosity.

Feeling lonely, say something about smokers. Hey, look, you've got mail!

Posted by RainMonkey | February 4, 2007 6:16 PM
2

It's from the heart, RainMonkey. Ask Ari Spool.

Posted by Dan Savage | February 4, 2007 6:28 PM
3

Hmm, do Josh and Erica give you shit for this? It certainly undermines their surface option advocacy, then anti-car stuff, and all that complaining about global warming when even their own editor drives 350 miles round trip in order to find a place where he can concentrate for a day.

Posted by wf | February 4, 2007 6:45 PM
4

Uh... i don't know how to drive. I took the train--with 300 other people.

Posted by Dan Savage | February 4, 2007 6:49 PM
5

Are you doing TAL in New York? Do I finally get to see you?

Posted by Boomer | February 4, 2007 7:53 PM
6

screw portland....come to victoria, no smokers allowed ANYWHERE and its not inundated with wifi yet.....the only problem is that no one wants to carry your syndication out here because they are all conservative, tight assed pussys....o canada!!

Posted by parvati | February 4, 2007 8:11 PM
7

# 6 --- still tight assed - eh? in BC? thought they had gay marriage and universal heath care and no death penalty and did not send a lot of troops to war and ... tight assed perhaps means no butt fucking and that means you don't know how to ask, Seattle kids go there for the not ass

silly boy .... come to some parts of America for tight assed AND conservative

Posted by sidney | February 4, 2007 8:17 PM
8

Dan, just keep quiet. Follow your own advice. A private getaway - we all understand. Somewhere they won't spot you as quickly, in fact, wear your old flannel shirt and old jeans and they will think you are from Eugene.

Your non smoking compulsion is getting old .... of course most people agree, your readers, so it is very,very safe. Good marketing, take the easy issues as your own.

Posted by caleb | February 4, 2007 8:25 PM
9

crow duly consumed.

Posted by wf | February 4, 2007 8:40 PM
10

@6 - I live in Alberta, which as you know is so redneck it's Canada's Texas. We have Savage Love here...

Posted by Rielle | February 4, 2007 9:00 PM
11

#7-its all a front...most canadians appear open minded on the surface, but dig a little deeper and they are just as sexually repressed as all the fundamentalist christians in your country. and very polite too... ;>)

#10-WTF?? YOU HAVE SAVAGE LOVE IN ALBERTA??? red necks reading dan??shit, what is this world coming to?

Posted by parvati | February 4, 2007 9:23 PM
12

Dan, are you seriously not appearing at the Seattle stop on the TAL tour? What's up with that?

Posted by me | February 4, 2007 9:50 PM
13

Yay to Dan for taking the Amtrak. That is the ONLY way will go to Portland anymore, but I am a train geek.

I am flying back to Omaha tomorrow to see my mom for a few weeks, and then taking the train from Omaha to San Francisco at the end of the month, and I. Can't. Wait. Talk about going cold turkey on the internet! Two whole days of napping, movies, reading and the bar car!!!

I'll try to send some dispatches from the frozen heart of this misguided nation ;-)

Posted by catalina vel-duray | February 4, 2007 9:53 PM
14

Uh... I'm appearing at all the TAL stops. Why do you ask?

Posted by Dan Savage | February 4, 2007 9:54 PM
15

The solution to your wifi problem is simple. It's what I do at work in order to get work done, despite the fact that I have a wired internet connection and no content filtering. My work even requires an internet connection 99% of the time.

I turn off the crap the distracts me. I close my mail program, I don't run instant messaging, and I close my web browser. In your case, this would be as easy as disabling your wireless, which is as easy as right-clicking its icon and clicking "disable". You could of course, just turn it on again, but that requires effort on your part.

Posted by Ernie | February 5, 2007 12:11 AM
16

yay for smoky bars. you know whats worse smoky houses cause yyou cant go to the bar cause your married or in love and its all ove the place. Smoke is good. it kills the pain of heartache and really gives you one.
you feel more alive when you your doing something like smoking. Ihate what i do....... bBut i lov eit. Why?
scientists need not appply. I'm drunk and my girlfriends msad at me.

Posted by sputnik | February 5, 2007 3:03 AM
17

I neewd to watsshch some Blade Runnner.

Posted by sputnik | February 5, 2007 3:04 AM
18

Huh, I had to work during the Super Bowl. It must be nice to be able to complain about actually being able to watch the Super Bowl.

Posted by larry clark | February 5, 2007 3:38 AM
19

bitch. ;)

Posted by larry clark | February 5, 2007 3:44 AM
20

Has the TAL tour been announced yet? I can't find any info on it through google...

Posted by jamier | February 5, 2007 8:35 AM
21

I'm on the TAL update mailing list, and I'm guessing #12 is too. We got an e-mail Jan 31 announcing the TAL tour and saying who will be appearing in each city. Dan, you're on the list for every city except Seattle and Los Angeles. Glad to hear that was a mistake, though I don't think I can afford the tickets (for train and show) to come see it.

Posted by trina from portland | February 5, 2007 9:08 AM
22

I've gotta take the train to Portland one of these weekends.

I also find that I get more work done when no wi-fi is available. Damn our lack of self discipline!

The place of choice in the U District is Solstice, which doesn't quite get a connection with the U District wi-fi. Also, ironically, the place of choice on the hill for this is Victrola on the weekends, which shut their wi-fi off on weekends to clear out the laptop crowd and make more room for hipsters.

Posted by Gomez | February 5, 2007 10:04 AM
23

Does anyone know where TAL will be recorded when it comes to Seattle? Are tix available yet? I just signed up for the weekly email, missed the 1/31 mailing, and am anxious that I'm going to miss out on opportunity to see my favorite show.

Posted by Dan | February 5, 2007 10:41 AM
24

Yes, we have Savage Love in Alberta- I've been reading for the past 3 years. I recently moved to Montreal- supposedly the heartland of Canada's kinkiest- and I can't find it published in any of the local publications.

go figure.

Posted by nottessa | February 5, 2007 12:08 PM
25

we used to have it here in Victoria, but word on the street is that the wife of the publisher who's paper it was in, read it over breakfast one morning. to her horror she read something about someone cumming on someone's face...(pass the jam, please). she showed the article to her husband and said "do you know what your paper is printing?" savage was removed from then on.
i am from montreal, very kinky town, but it has to be en francais....get savage translated.....salut!

Posted by parvati | February 5, 2007 12:45 PM
26

I should have mentioned that I was referring to the 4 local english "alternative" publications that I've come across.
I've found both the "My Messy Bedroom" and "Three Dollar Bill" columns in these prints... both in english... and both of which are far inferior to "Savage Love".

Posted by nottessa | February 5, 2007 2:08 PM
27

I hear ya Dan. I live in Portland and love dive bars, but I've recently been diagnosed with asthma. Doctor's orders to stay out of smokey bars. The remaining options I've found so far are yuppy habitat. On the bright side, I have been saving a lot of money....

Posted by suck it up | February 5, 2007 11:27 PM

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