I think you handled the situation 100%. The only other thing I could think of pointing out would be that without all of us going to work, he'd have no fucking fancy fountain to dip his worthless feet in. Word.

Do not ever move to the Bay Area if this annoys you. Just sayin.

And I agree with PA Native -- chill. This is just a silly story. Nothing beautiful about it.

flame away at my lack of understanding their problems but i could give a fuck about their problems.

Some self-righteous, ultra-cool Stranger writer puts up a post to show us they have greater knowledge, or exist on a higher plane than the rest of us. We then either join them in the pool, or tell them to fuck off.

Hippies are annoying, big freakin' suprise. Not a threat and not worth ganging up on for the billionth time.

Was that your point?

If so, you should move to NYC.

What the fuck does putting your bare feet in a fountain instead of going to work have to do with having an open mind?

What's your point here? Kick off the shoes and stand in the warm sun all day? Great advice. Way to fight the system. Way to show those Red Bushies, eh?

As for #22, amen brother.

The homeless problem in this city is horrible. My SO and me went to see 300, when some bum snuck in, smelled like ashtray/urine/ketosis proceed to stink everything up and drank out of a bottle of MD, then proceeded to passout and snore through the last half of the movie.

Of course, we got up to move, but in the process I gave him an appropriately swift kick in his legs to let him know he aint worth crap.

I was astonished as to how many people sat around and took it.

Ah, liberal Seattlites, spineless since '92.

"irritating dirty hippies"
"worthless feet"
"I hope they chlorinate that water"
"all they do is smoke pot and smell bad"
"homeless wastes of oxygen"
"know nothing dirt bag"
"dumb shit"

Jesus H Tapdancing Christ, did I somehow switch over to the Wall Street Journal web site by accident?

"i have considered your approach to life and find that, at this time, it would be neither beneficial for me or for those i care about. that you condescendingly reproach me for this is an affront to the very ideas you would seem to be championing."

If a chat'n'go nod to the guy and then a post-polite "fuck you" wasn't enough of a stop sign for The Insightful Public Foot Soaker, I suppose he could have done something more about it. Maybe he could have tromped backwards in front of Eli the rest of the way to work, describing other mirthful delights, including how they make you feel if you allow yourself to really enjoy them.

But, lo, he just fucked off into the background. Perfect.

I thought hippies got jobs when Jerry died.

men-DACITY!!!!

1. was he a homeless dirtball hippy?
2. was he a trustafarian hippy?
3. was he a uptight-seattleite hippy?

because only #2 is truly annoying.

I could easily see one of those guys retiring to walk in fountains, juggle, and chat with financial advisors about various responsible investments.

Will in Seattle has this down perfectly. I wish I could move back. Seattle needs a little grit.

Fuck I hate Seattle.

You guys get your jollies from that?

It's summer, stop harshing my mellow.

He's probably a multi-millionaire too, but you'll never know, mr. dayjob. Lots more than you think, mr. dressed up in black too cool for school wish i was in NYC instead of Seattle ...

If you don't like it here ... move.

And another thing, what's with all that hippie dancing at summer festivals? Yuck!

He was smugly lording it over someone else having to go to work while he didn't. I would have told him to go fuck himself too.

You don't have to be a right-winger to hate dirty, smelly, worthless hippies.

"Man, sure are a lot of homeless bashing skinheads on today."

Waaa

"It's summer, stop harshing my mellow."

So go outside, or read something other than what is obviously going to be a hippy bashing thread! YOU are harshing OUR bashing!

Give me my moneybelt, comfortable shoes and two tickets to Paris where everyone smells bad. Not just hippies.

This whole conflict is almost as much fun as the Hempfest vs. SAM catfight.

Carry on.

Some people can certainly be annoying,but no one really ever bothers me, and as I've gotten older Ive learned to walk away from potential fights. This was not always the case.

My only rule is if youre going to be a bad ass to somebody whose ass you can kick, than you should be a bad ass to somebody whose ass you can not kick or you think is at least going to make you sweat if he decides to charge you, or at the very least is going to make you use your brazilian jiu jitsu moves.

I wonder if Eli would have said the same thing to a big ass muscled dude with tats on his neck and a scar across his face who said something annoying and rude as clearly this hippy did. Who knows, maybe he would have. Not knowing Eli is hard to make that assesment.

But I wonder, what's the use if you can only practice being an assertive bad ass with a nutty hippy who is not going to respond? I doubt very much that a mentaly ill hippy is going to throw down with you if you tell him to f off. I am not saying that this person didnt deserve to be told to f off.

Im not saying Eli does not practice consistet assertiveness, Im just saying cuz I have watched many people be tough with wimps and bow their heads with thugs. All Im saying is one should be consistent in one's fearlesness even if you get your ass kicked ocassionally, or one should be consistent in walking away from potential confrontations. If you pick to be fearless with weaklings than thats not really assertive fearlesness.

With all due respect, if you can do it to anybody than props, if not than...

Being that I'm well-mannered and going about my business, that's one thing I have a hard time with. It's like you're getting played into the 'weakling' role without even having anything to do with it, and either you can accept it or not. Weird game, hunh?

You're right, SeMe, about that you could end up getting your ass kicked, but the odds are better that you can get people to fuck off by calling bullshit on their bullshit.

"The type who’s doing something utterly unremarkable, something barely transgressive at all, and who acts as if he’s just levitated the Pentagon or discovered the key to changing the universe and needs to share this key with all of us poor saps who — horrors — are busy rushing off to work."

Have you ever read Josh Feit on jazz? Erica Barnett on cars? These are parodies of themselves.

You being ironic, right?

You sly dog.

That said, that fountain hippy would have annoyed the living shit out of me.

I agree. There were two perspectives, and each ended up happy at the end. The details don't matter much. Considering the extremely different perspectives is interesting, though.

I'm not sure how Eli Sanders came up with the idea that this guy thought he was "changing the universe" by just hanging out in the park. It seemed like he was just enjoying another day of being alive. How often do we do that? Are we supposed to feel smugly superior because we have bullshit jobs and mortgages and car payments and televisions?

And a bunch of other comments on here turned it into something political. And hateful. @36 sums it up well. Lot of weird anger there.

Whatever, it's just a story. Two very different viewpoints. Personally, as a full-time student and loather of 9 to 5 life, I'm probably more philosophically aligned with "hippie man." But at least Eli got in his self-important dig. And "hippie man" rightly couldn't care less. Everybody wins.

I don't think the guy would have annoyed the shit out of me. If he said "If you took your shoes off you could do this, too" to me, I probably would have smiled at him, looked in the water, and said "Not in that filth, bro. But, hey-- you do what you want." I probably would have smiled at him again, and continued on my way. Less hate, more health.

Maybe I was a hippie in a past life or something, but I'd probably have taken my shoes off, rolled up my pants, and waded in the fountain for a minute... Then walk to work. Or maybe it's the little kid in me. I don't know. But it sounds like fun to me.

And as a practical matter, what is the difference between a hippie wading in the fountain at Cal Anderson Park, and a hundred homos wading in the fountain at the Seattle Center. Other than, you know, he's a stinking hippie who obviously doesn't deserve to breath the same air as the working class.

Grrr.

Somehow in the comments thread, though, our smug hippie became a homeless, jobless pan-handler with gross hygiene. Blue-sky assertions, all.

Jay @80 seems to be on to something, but I wonder if part of it isn't also a lot of working-class lefties pissed off about years of being lumped in to a hippie stereotype just for their politics or social views.

"...I gave him an appropriately swift kick in his legs to let him know I aint worth crap."

I would argue that Seattle has significantly fewer of those types -- people who like to fuck with you because they get off on it and because they can. What's striking is that no one in Seattle calls them out on it. Yesterday, on the bus, some guy was loudly ranting about something or other. For the first time in the five years I've lived here, someone actually told him to shut the fuck up.

In contrast, New York is crawling with those kinds of assholes. The difference is that New Yorkers feel more empowered (probably due to necessity more than anything else) not to take their shit.

I have never had that problem here. Never. And I have always lived in the so called bad parts of town, even before they were gentrified. But I see Lloyd's point.

I still say, if you can say it to a wimp, say it to a non wimp. Sometimes you will have to fight, sometimes you will not. If you cant be consistent in your bad assness than why get props? Basically, you have decided I can take this dude, so Im gonna tell him to f off. It is certainly your right, but youre not really a bad ass or you havent earned a right to feel good unless you do that to everybody, including those who will give u a bit of a fight. Thats all.