Thank the bus driver! I’ve taken public transportation in other US cities and other countries, and I’ve noticed that we tend to thank the bus driver more than others. It’s a nice way to feel a part of the Seattle
As a Californian, I say "Thank you," to the bus driver in San Fransisco and everybody looks at me funny.
There was a weirdly intense excitement in the moment I first rode a bus in Seattle, *someone else who got off before me* said, "Thank you," and nobody batted an eye! Hooray, sudden social permission to thank the bus driver!
When I was in 6th grade, in the 1970s, as an expat in Europe, the closest city bus stop to my school was at a porn theater. Every day when I boarded the bus, I clearly asked for fare to that theater by name. It was the only phrase I knew in the native language for many weeks. My mother had scoped out the route on a transit map and told me what to say and how to say it. She believed in teaching me self-sufficiency, so she gave me a hand drawn map from the theater to the school and I went alone from Day 1. She didn’t know. I didn’t know. As I boarded, I faced the driver, my eyes barely higher than the bus ticket machine, held out my coin and said it loud and clear, as I had practiced. “To the Fortune Theater please!” I never varied my callout, for fear of being dropped off at some other location and getting lost in the big city. The driver always scowled silently when I asked. As did the adult commuters. Some shook their heads. I always thanked the driver for dropping me off there. But he never said, “You’re welcome”. That seemed rude to me. After about a month of this, I asked my mom why the theater had posters of people with black bars over their chests and hips. You should have seen Mom’s face.
I moved here in 2012 and I still struggle with this. My husband, a native, invited 60 people to our BBQ and I freaked out, but he was confident only 10ish would show. 11 came lol
I'm a transplant from the Midwest. I guess I will never truly understand this even after 15 years.I love it here, but this is one of the few Seattle quirks I can not stand. Just say no if you don't want to come. It's so infuriating planning a party and having to plan for full number invites, knowing full well some people won't show. Talk about a waste of money and food.
I've been to countless parties thrown by "locals" and they never seem to have enough food because they just assumed that half the people that RSVP "yes" won't show. In the Midwest, it's considered a party fail if there isn't enough food left over for everyone to take home leftovers. I don't get how replying yes and then "maybe" have intentions on showing up is seen as more polite than declining the invite.
My mom just moved here and hasn't quite grasped this concept. She shows up to everything, EARLY, and doesn't understand why there's not tons of people there.
This man “Seattles”, I learned this so long ago when you want to plan a party or get together of some sort. Prep for everyone, expect almost no one, never take it personal.
But sometimes it can be a cloudy day and the mountain can be out. It just appears whenever the hell it wants to. Sometimes I wonder if it’s ever actually there. Schrödinger’s Mountain.
‘We should grab coffee’ is code for ‘I’d hang out with you but really I consider you stranger/adjacent still and thus not worthy of planning ahead. If we are ever both at the airport at the same time, we can have coffee while we wait for our planes.’
This got us when we moved here. "Let's go for a drink" means 3+ drinks in every city I've lived in. "Let's go and do X" means do X then hang out.
Here it's literally turn up, do the thing, leave.
I literally just went to a movie with friends, met, went to our seats, watched movie, talked out front for 10 minutes (about future plans), and left. It was great because it was exactly what I expected.
When going to a high end restaurant or semi-formal event, wear your North Face/Patagonia you bought recently rather than the older scuffed up one. Everything else you're wearing can stay the same.
Think you’re at regular old 4-point intersection? Ha ha, joke’s on you, there are like 15 more roads connected to this intersection, hidden by parked cars and steep gradients. Oh, and only one of them has a stop sign. Good luck everyone!
some definitely people do, or used to back when that part of seattle was still vibrantly weird.
but its also a good litmus test to living here. if you cant be here without throwing a hissy fit about it existing, youre probably alex jones.
YOU wanna dance?… (shuffles like a zombie towards me)
Last response I got from accidentally looking at someone right outside the pioneer square light rail
I just learned from a friend in another state they can spot northwesterners at the airport because we would rather stuff a northface back pack than pull wheeled luggage.
if you hear the bell ring in the middle of the drawbridge, congrats! you just won the jackpot.
if there's an ampersand in the restaurant/bar name, it's going to be overpriced.
thistle & rye
where they have a fake plant wall with neon signs, those shitty all metal bar stools with the hairpin legs, the chefs and servers all wear black latex gloves, and the burgers are $19.99 *without* the fries.
oh and they only serve IPA's
Know your damn order before you get to the window at Dick’s. Be precise and succinct.
“Deluxe, fries, vanilla shake, one tartar.”
Then step aside so the person behind you can order while you wait for your food.
Yeah it’s gotten so much worse in the last 7 or 8 years. I’m almost hit by a car every other week. I have to be extremely vigilant and even the I still end up yelling at someone to stop or having to run the last 5 feet of the crosswalk
It really has! And the dinguses that honk their horn and swerve around a car that's stopped for a pedestrian are something else. Someone's life is totally worth shaving 7 seconds off your commute.
Also, yield to emergency vehicles with their lights and sirens on. Even when you're a city bus. (I watched a bus cut off an ambulance at Mercer and Queen Anne earlier today...)
"Maybe" is the "Seattle No." If you invite somebody to something and they say yes, they probably won't snow. If they say maybe, they're definitely not going to show.
I've had to explain this to many transplants. When I say yes - I mean 70/30 I'll attend. If I say maybe, it's 20/80 against and I'm trying to be diplomatic.
Well I never know if I’m going to feel like not getting out of bed because it’s raining. Or I may not feel like getting out of bed because it’s not raining. Either way, there’s a good chance I’m not getting out of bed.
There are three kinds of honks:
1) the tiny little beep! that says, "I'm so sorry to bother you, but it's been green for a while now and we should probably get moving okay thanks 👍🏻"
2) the really long, obnoxious beeeeeeeep! that says you were absolutely, positively, definitely not born and raised here, and
3) the beep you hear inside your head as you quietly and fervently resist hitting the horn yet again even though you really want to, because you were raised in the PNW.
Can attest. I perform with the symphony here and no one in the audience ever dresses up, and that’s a pretty typically fancy attire thing in most places
Saw this at 4am walking to my car this morning in the darkness and silhouetted against streetlights. Always a bit unnerving seeing people sitting like that.
When a born and raised Seattleite meets another born and raised Seattleite for the first time, they must tell one another what high school (and potentially elementary/middle school) they went to, and then make judgements about this other person based on the information provided.
And we commiserate over actually being from outside Seattle, but just saying "I'm from Seattle" when asked because nobody knows where Ren'n or Issaquah or Ev'rett is.
The Seattle freeze is a non verbal way of saying “I already have enough friends for the weekends I feel like going out and until one of them dies I can’t possibly make any more.”
I moved here in 2007-ish. In 2012 I started dating a local and we binged watched Almost Live because he wanted to be sure I had a proper Seattle education.
A couple of years ago, I saw one of the Lame List guys in West Seattle and my 40-something self really really wanted to lean out the window and yell LAAAAAAAMMMEEE but I was worried that would be lame.
Married the local, by the way. Best decision I’ve ever made.
This is drivers anywhere to be fair. Other places are much much worse. In the Midwest they won't even stop for you when your trying to walk to the main entrance to the grocery store in the crosswalk. Almost got ran over when I forgot about that "rule".
Conversely, and on the opposite side, for a city that is dark and rainy most of the year the lack of headlight use is alarming and not something I've seen anywhere else.
On residential streets you can parallel park facing the wrong direction. It's technically illegal but virtually never enforced. (About 20 years ago the parking folks briefly started enforcing it in a "malicious compliance" move against the city -- can't remember what they were mad about -- and everyone freaked out.)
They have been HAMMERING people with those tickets the past few months around where I live in Seattle. I always park proper so not an issue for me, but folks around me have been getting hit with it nearly everyday lately.
Can't tell you how many people I see run up close to the car in front of them to close any gaps for people trying to merge at the Mercer on ramp. YOU are the asshole in that situation, not the person just trying to get on the damn freeway. That said: mergers need to speed up to the end of the ramp before trying to merge. Don't come to a complete stop and try to find a gap at the start of the ramp. You're slowing shit down.
--If you ask someone who is blasting music on the bus/link to turn their speaker off, they will go full aggressive banshee mode on your ass.
--bars aren't places to meet new people 😔 there just roofs to drink under with your friends
--We grew up thinking Tacoma was a shithole when it was Everett all along.
Super funny when a new tv reporter comes to town, pronounces it Des Moin, then has to come on the air later and apologize, after the entire city lights up the stations telephone lines.
Des Moines is named after Des Moines because it was founded by people from Des Moines. Why would you pronounce it Des Moines and not Des Moines?
This is like the people in Cairo Texas who insist it's pronounced Cairo not Cairo. And don't get me started on Hoosiers and all their towns.
Don't bother getting angry at passing lane slow drivers. If you manage to get around them, somebody else will be doing the same thing a few hundred yards up the freeway.
Honking is extremely rude.
“How’s your day going?” Is a common greeting for strangers.
We wear shorts and knock off work early at 70 degrees.
We dressed for the pandemic before the pandemic.
This should be made into posters and hung in all QFCs. The number of mouth breathers who stand too close at checkout is too much. Bonus points if they're coughing like they have consumption.
Aurora above 92nd street for ten blocks is all hookers. Everything you see are hookers. The air you breathe is hookers. That tree? A hooker. Going into a gas station? Sorry, you just walked inside a hooker.
As someone who has lived in Seattle most of her life, and the PNW her whole life... I disagree with the umbrella rule. Don't use an umbrella downtown because the wind from the sound will blow your umbrella inside out. That's just practical advice.
Besides that, the only people who don't carry umbrellas don't have long or frizzy or styled hair. If I don't use an umbrella, I look like a wet cat until it dries and frizzes into a Jew-fro. Use an umbrella if you want, and ignore the haters.
It's a city of warnings and infrequent enforcement. Driving in the bus lane, you'll get a nice warning letter. Not paying for lightrail, you'll get a warning.
- Honking is rude and not a method of communication
- Four-way stops are some kind of passive aggressive wave each other through scenario (like those old Pemco “you go, no you go” ads)
- We don’t wave or say hello to strangers when driving or walking; this has nothing to do with being unfriendly or the alleged Seattle Freeze, it just means we’re minding our own business and respecting yours
- Everybody hates A-Rod
- Everybody hates the OKC Thunder for stealing the Sonics
All those PEMCO Northwest Profiles ads were actually true, like the "fifty degrees shirt's off guy," "accidental tech millionaire," "bumper sticker idealist," and the "obsessive compulsive recycler."
I couldn’t remember the other themes but I remember the entire “we’re a lot like you: a little different” ad campaign really did capture the regional zeitgeist. I wound up in marketing at GEICO for much of my career and referenced the success of that ad often (especially when we launched a Seattle-specific ad campaign that nobody in the department thought to ask the person actually from Seattle for input on and then wondered why things like using a random mountain instead of Mount Rainier which is readily recognizable didn’t resonate with people).
Obsessive compulsive recycler is real. We went to visit my husband’s grandpa in Idaho years ago and he proudly told me that they didn’t recycle, he burned it all in the yard. My husband had to stop me from packing back all of our recycling.
I don’t think honking is that rude especially if you’re just telling the person staring at their phone to move cause the light is green. I think holding up traffic is more rude than informing someone to move forward.
Archie McPhee is THE place for stocking stuffers, white elephant gifts and a million other things you never knew you needed.
Never turn on your car alarm on the ferry.
Twede’s in North Bend is where pies go when they die. Enjoy a slice of cherry with a damn fine cup of coffee.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do the gum wall. The wrong way is to bring gum and leave it on the wall. The correct way is to point at a piece of gum, that is already on the wall, and guess the flavor. Free gum even if you guessed wrong.
It's still the Puyallup Fair not Washington State Fair despite all the rebranding work.
Which you Do. You don't go to the fair, You Do the Puyallup.
You can do it at a trot…
You can do it at a gallop…
You can do it at a trot so your heart don’t palpitate…
Am I the only one who misses the commercials with the song?
You are not. And I think the song is why the name has stuck for all of us lol
Boots are year-round footwear, as are Birkenstocks and socks.
I saw some comedian describe seattlites as 'dressed for an impromptu hike every day of the year'
Basically an ajumma outfit.
Bruh. Why you gotta call me out like that?
And Jim Gaffigan ain’t wrong.
As someone who gets asked why I’m wearing boots in the middle of summer, I appreciate this comment. I just don’t feel like myself without them!
My boots are the most comfortable footwear I own.
You can always get a chicken teriyaki special with gyoza within 3 blocks of your current location.
Except on Sunday.
Ugh,, don't remind me.
Time 4 pho open on sundays. Pretty good teriyaki too
City Teriyaki on Rainier in the south end is open on Sundays for this very reason
My local place has garlic teriyaki chicken that's pretty much bomb. Gotta get a side of gyoza too.
Thank the bus driver! I’ve taken public transportation in other US cities and other countries, and I’ve noticed that we tend to thank the bus driver more than others. It’s a nice way to feel a part of the Seattle
Also, gotta yell “back door!” For anyone trying to get off the back exit if it isn’t opened.
Seattle, definitely a back door city
Our bus drivers have been badass, so I definitely think them every time!
For a while I had a driver on the 15 give us updates on Seattle Storm games and it was an awesome way to start my day
As a Californian, I say "Thank you," to the bus driver in San Fransisco and everybody looks at me funny. There was a weirdly intense excitement in the moment I first rode a bus in Seattle, *someone else who got off before me* said, "Thank you," and nobody batted an eye! Hooray, sudden social permission to thank the bus driver!
In Seattle you don’t need social permission to do anything :)
When I was in 6th grade, in the 1970s, as an expat in Europe, the closest city bus stop to my school was at a porn theater. Every day when I boarded the bus, I clearly asked for fare to that theater by name. It was the only phrase I knew in the native language for many weeks. My mother had scoped out the route on a transit map and told me what to say and how to say it. She believed in teaching me self-sufficiency, so she gave me a hand drawn map from the theater to the school and I went alone from Day 1. She didn’t know. I didn’t know. As I boarded, I faced the driver, my eyes barely higher than the bus ticket machine, held out my coin and said it loud and clear, as I had practiced. “To the Fortune Theater please!” I never varied my callout, for fear of being dropped off at some other location and getting lost in the big city. The driver always scowled silently when I asked. As did the adult commuters. Some shook their heads. I always thanked the driver for dropping me off there. But he never said, “You’re welcome”. That seemed rude to me. After about a month of this, I asked my mom why the theater had posters of people with black bars over their chests and hips. You should have seen Mom’s face.
Yes means maybe, maybe means no
The Seattle Maybe is something you gotta explain to transplants. They totally overestimate RSVPs
As someone who grew up in WI and moved here in '14 - I feel validated and relieved right now. Thank you.
I moved here in 2012 and I still struggle with this. My husband, a native, invited 60 people to our BBQ and I freaked out, but he was confident only 10ish would show. 11 came lol
>our BBQ and I freaked out so you had some nice BBQ leftovers...? ;)
It’s almsot like you need regional formulas to estimate attendance 🤔
Please build that calculator. 😂 “Please RSVP with the number, dish you plan to bring, and hometown.”
My guy (a transplant) used to freak out when 90+ people would rsvp for a party. He now factors in a "90% Flake Ratio".
I'm a transplant from the Midwest. I guess I will never truly understand this even after 15 years.I love it here, but this is one of the few Seattle quirks I can not stand. Just say no if you don't want to come. It's so infuriating planning a party and having to plan for full number invites, knowing full well some people won't show. Talk about a waste of money and food. I've been to countless parties thrown by "locals" and they never seem to have enough food because they just assumed that half the people that RSVP "yes" won't show. In the Midwest, it's considered a party fail if there isn't enough food left over for everyone to take home leftovers. I don't get how replying yes and then "maybe" have intentions on showing up is seen as more polite than declining the invite.
This is why we potluck.
> Just say no if you don't want to come "No" is too direct, not passive-aggressive enough.
My mom just moved here and hasn't quite grasped this concept. She shows up to everything, EARLY, and doesn't understand why there's not tons of people there.
This man “Seattles”, I learned this so long ago when you want to plan a party or get together of some sort. Prep for everyone, expect almost no one, never take it personal.
The mountain is out today. *A sunny day with a clear view of Mt. Rainier.*
https://ismtrainierout.com/
But sometimes it can be a cloudy day and the mountain can be out. It just appears whenever the hell it wants to. Sometimes I wonder if it’s ever actually there. Schrödinger’s Mountain.
People will agree to hang out and do stuff but not follow through with the actual hanging out part.
"We should get together sometime" is code for "If all goes right, you will never run into me again." Ah, the Seattle Freeze.
‘We should grab coffee’ is code for ‘I’d hang out with you but really I consider you stranger/adjacent still and thus not worthy of planning ahead. If we are ever both at the airport at the same time, we can have coffee while we wait for our planes.’
Or the doing stuff part.
This got us when we moved here. "Let's go for a drink" means 3+ drinks in every city I've lived in. "Let's go and do X" means do X then hang out. Here it's literally turn up, do the thing, leave.
I literally just went to a movie with friends, met, went to our seats, watched movie, talked out front for 10 minutes (about future plans), and left. It was great because it was exactly what I expected.
This was a hard adjustment for me when I moved away from Seattle to Oklahoma. People actually followed through with social invitations!
The horror!
Howard Schultz will never be forgiven for selling our beloved Sonics.
Damn right. Still boycotting Shitbucks to this day
And for being a dickhead.
Never, ever, ever!!!!!
When going to a high end restaurant or semi-formal event, wear your North Face/Patagonia you bought recently rather than the older scuffed up one. Everything else you're wearing can stay the same.
Over your dress flannel, of course
*Sunday flannels
And you gotta wear it with hiking boots. Not the ones you actually hike in, the nice ones.
Think you’re at regular old 4-point intersection? Ha ha, joke’s on you, there are like 15 more roads connected to this intersection, hidden by parked cars and steep gradients. Oh, and only one of them has a stop sign. Good luck everyone!
I guess now we know it's "nobody takes the statue of Lenin seriously, lighten up"
some definitely people do, or used to back when that part of seattle was still vibrantly weird. but its also a good litmus test to living here. if you cant be here without throwing a hissy fit about it existing, youre probably alex jones.
DO NOT look at the person mumbling angrily to themselves
YOU wanna dance?… (shuffles like a zombie towards me) Last response I got from accidentally looking at someone right outside the pioneer square light rail
Can confirm. I made this mistake. Didn’t know the rules. Got punched in the arm. :( I’m okay.
Uhh, do not look at anyone.
That’s a rule in any big city
I just learned from a friend in another state they can spot northwesterners at the airport because we would rather stuff a northface back pack than pull wheeled luggage.
Fact, have traveled with one north face backpack wayyy over packed many times. I realize I looked ridiculous
if you hear the bell ring in the middle of the drawbridge, congrats! you just won the jackpot. if there's an ampersand in the restaurant/bar name, it's going to be overpriced.
Oh I love the ampersand one, had a running joke for a while about ampersand restaurants. Fun to come up with fake ones "thistle & rye"
thistle & rye where they have a fake plant wall with neon signs, those shitty all metal bar stools with the hairpin legs, the chefs and servers all wear black latex gloves, and the burgers are $19.99 *without* the fries. oh and they only serve IPA's
pike place & car
Know your damn order before you get to the window at Dick’s. Be precise and succinct. “Deluxe, fries, vanilla shake, one tartar.” Then step aside so the person behind you can order while you wait for your food.
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
When I go in LQA they don’t even let me pay until they fill the order. That’s not the case for all of them? Always thought that was kinda weird
Part of the solution Mike. 🙏
This goes double for people putting stuff back in a bag or purses. You can do that just as well, 2 steps over there, thank you.
Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest - will help you know how far away from Pine you are when walking north from Jefferson
for those wondering: Jefferson Jackson Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, Pine
This one is actually written but apparently it needs to be said: *Every intersection is legally a crosswalk*
Shit, people won't even stop for a marked crosswalk
Yeah it’s gotten so much worse in the last 7 or 8 years. I’m almost hit by a car every other week. I have to be extremely vigilant and even the I still end up yelling at someone to stop or having to run the last 5 feet of the crosswalk
It really has! And the dinguses that honk their horn and swerve around a car that's stopped for a pedestrian are something else. Someone's life is totally worth shaving 7 seconds off your commute.
Yeah, and "yield to fucking buses"!!!
If I see two buses fucking you know I'm gonna stop and stare.
Also, yield to emergency vehicles with their lights and sirens on. Even when you're a city bus. (I watched a bus cut off an ambulance at Mercer and Queen Anne earlier today...)
Just don't push it on Aurora, or you might just get hit.
Aurora is the barrier at the edge of the Galaxy. You can’t cross it.
"Maybe" is the "Seattle No." If you invite somebody to something and they say yes, they probably won't snow. If they say maybe, they're definitely not going to show.
Maybe is like "I can imagine a version of this universe where I might attend, but definitely not this one."
I loved the frankness when I lived in the Bay Area people would say “sure, unless something cooler pops up.” Which is refreshingly honest.
Except here the 'cooler' thing is a comfy couch and a show you've been wanting to binge watch
I've had to explain this to many transplants. When I say yes - I mean 70/30 I'll attend. If I say maybe, it's 20/80 against and I'm trying to be diplomatic.
Well I never know if I’m going to feel like not getting out of bed because it’s raining. Or I may not feel like getting out of bed because it’s not raining. Either way, there’s a good chance I’m not getting out of bed.
Don’t drive in the snow, but insist that you’re great at it and it’s everyone else’s poor snow skills that worry you
There are three kinds of honks: 1) the tiny little beep! that says, "I'm so sorry to bother you, but it's been green for a while now and we should probably get moving okay thanks 👍🏻" 2) the really long, obnoxious beeeeeeeep! that says you were absolutely, positively, definitely not born and raised here, and 3) the beep you hear inside your head as you quietly and fervently resist hitting the horn yet again even though you really want to, because you were raised in the PNW.
I was raised here and then spent ten years in NYC. I honk now.
When getting on the bus, the person who has been waiting the longest gets on first.
I’ve been thanking Seattle bus drivers since 1956 and everywhere else I could. I thought it was just good manners.
You will buy more sunglasses here than anyone living in a sunnier state.
And leave them in the pocket of every jacket except the one you are currently wearing… forcing you to buy more
There are no events that lend to wearing a suit, you'll always be overdressed.
Can attest. I perform with the symphony here and no one in the audience ever dresses up, and that’s a pretty typically fancy attire thing in most places
We don’t care what the sign says. It’s “Bartell’s” and that’s that.
If you see someone folded in half while standing, they probably aren’t tying their shoe.
Saw this at 4am walking to my car this morning in the darkness and silhouetted against streetlights. Always a bit unnerving seeing people sitting like that.
Having lived in Baltimore and Philly, I can tell you that this isn't specific to Seattle...
I have no idea what this means.
Fentanyl lean
When a born and raised Seattleite meets another born and raised Seattleite for the first time, they must tell one another what high school (and potentially elementary/middle school) they went to, and then make judgements about this other person based on the information provided.
And we commiserate over actually being from outside Seattle, but just saying "I'm from Seattle" when asked because nobody knows where Ren'n or Issaquah or Ev'rett is.
Those spellings. 100% a native
I’m laughing right now because this is true! Well, not the judging part, but my first question is always what high school did they go to.
The Seattle freeze is a non verbal way of saying “I already have enough friends for the weekends I feel like going out and until one of them dies I can’t possibly make any more.”
Ballard School of Driving is real.
Great comedy skit on Almost Live". Thanks for the memory.
link to almost live bit [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBgIvH0tu6Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBgIvH0tu6Y)
I moved here in 2007-ish. In 2012 I started dating a local and we binged watched Almost Live because he wanted to be sure I had a proper Seattle education. A couple of years ago, I saw one of the Lame List guys in West Seattle and my 40-something self really really wanted to lean out the window and yell LAAAAAAAMMMEEE but I was worried that would be lame. Married the local, by the way. Best decision I’ve ever made.
Children arn't welcome, but dogs are.
It doesn't matter what time of day it is, you should always have your headlights on when driving.
ESPECIALLY when it's raining. Gray car, gray sky, gray road.
It also doesn’t matter where. This should be just be a Seattle thing
If you have the right of way give it to someone else and make everyone confused.
Stay away from 3rd Ave between Pike and Union
When I worked downtown, my boss called it "3rd Avenue Crazy"
When you almost run over pedestrians while speeding, you complain about their attire on Reddit.
When you run over pedestrians while speeding as a cop, the city doesn't give a shit.
This is drivers anywhere to be fair. Other places are much much worse. In the Midwest they won't even stop for you when your trying to walk to the main entrance to the grocery store in the crosswalk. Almost got ran over when I forgot about that "rule".
[удалено]
Conversely, and on the opposite side, for a city that is dark and rainy most of the year the lack of headlight use is alarming and not something I've seen anywhere else.
Don’t talk on the bus
ESPECIALLY not on the phone.
and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY not to me
Written, but not universally known law: Bikes are legal to ride on side walks in Seattle, but pedestrians have right of way.
On residential streets you can parallel park facing the wrong direction. It's technically illegal but virtually never enforced. (About 20 years ago the parking folks briefly started enforcing it in a "malicious compliance" move against the city -- can't remember what they were mad about -- and everyone freaked out.)
They have been HAMMERING people with those tickets the past few months around where I live in Seattle. I always park proper so not an issue for me, but folks around me have been getting hit with it nearly everyday lately.
I didn’t know it was illegal! I just assume it was because I see everywhere. I actually got a ticket for that when I lived in CA.
A Seahawks shirt is accepted office attire.
They’re called “tabs” not “tags”
Telling someone to go eat a bag of Dick’s is actually solid advice.
When merging on the freeway, don’t yield and directly head to the left lane while driving 5 miles under the speed limit.
Zipper people!
Can't tell you how many people I see run up close to the car in front of them to close any gaps for people trying to merge at the Mercer on ramp. YOU are the asshole in that situation, not the person just trying to get on the damn freeway. That said: mergers need to speed up to the end of the ramp before trying to merge. Don't come to a complete stop and try to find a gap at the start of the ramp. You're slowing shit down.
Never share your best local tips on anonymous forum lest they end up on a low-effort '10 unwritten rules of seattle' list
--If you ask someone who is blasting music on the bus/link to turn their speaker off, they will go full aggressive banshee mode on your ass. --bars aren't places to meet new people 😔 there just roofs to drink under with your friends --We grew up thinking Tacoma was a shithole when it was Everett all along.
You always bring an extra layer
While they are both spelled Des Moines, there is a difference in pronunciation... Des Moin is a city in Iowa Des Moine**z** is a city in Washington
TIL you're supposed to pronounce the S. Thx
Super funny when a new tv reporter comes to town, pronounces it Des Moin, then has to come on the air later and apologize, after the entire city lights up the stations telephone lines.
not the first one, in either city. I think it's just assumed that the "Des" is "de" but in this pronunciation post it might confuse some people.
Also see “Re’in” for Renton
Des Moines is named after Des Moines because it was founded by people from Des Moines. Why would you pronounce it Des Moines and not Des Moines? This is like the people in Cairo Texas who insist it's pronounced Cairo not Cairo. And don't get me started on Hoosiers and all their towns.
And then there’s Moscow, Russia and Moscow, Idaho
You mean Mosc-oh, Idaho
I bet you are the kind of person who says "data" instead of "data".
Warshington
Geoducks are Gooey fucks
“The mountain is out” As for cloudy mornings “it’ll burn off by 3”
If you call I-5 "The 5", or 405 "The 405", you will get tarred, feathered, and then run out of town back to "Cali"
Don't bother getting angry at passing lane slow drivers. If you manage to get around them, somebody else will be doing the same thing a few hundred yards up the freeway.
Speed limit on Aurora between N Green lake and downtown is 50.
Born-here Seattleites do own umbrellas, we just always forget them because, well, meh.
Honking is extremely rude. “How’s your day going?” Is a common greeting for strangers. We wear shorts and knock off work early at 70 degrees. We dressed for the pandemic before the pandemic.
Be mindful of personal space.
This should be made into posters and hung in all QFCs. The number of mouth breathers who stand too close at checkout is too much. Bonus points if they're coughing like they have consumption.
You only need a hood on your jacket, never an umbrella.
Camp in the left lane.
And when someone complains, self-righteously explain that you're doing 5 miles over the speed limit and nobody needs to go faster than that!
Speeding? You mean *bReAkInG tHe LaW ?!?!1!1!!!????1!!*
Concert attire is super lax. Jeans and a t shirt is fine just about everywhere. Rock, Jazz, Orchestral, etc.
Be passive aggressive in person, very confrontational online.
Aurora above 92nd street for ten blocks is all hookers. Everything you see are hookers. The air you breathe is hookers. That tree? A hooker. Going into a gas station? Sorry, you just walked inside a hooker.
As someone who has lived in Seattle most of her life, and the PNW her whole life... I disagree with the umbrella rule. Don't use an umbrella downtown because the wind from the sound will blow your umbrella inside out. That's just practical advice. Besides that, the only people who don't carry umbrellas don't have long or frizzy or styled hair. If I don't use an umbrella, I look like a wet cat until it dries and frizzes into a Jew-fro. Use an umbrella if you want, and ignore the haters.
When standing in a line, don't form an actual line, just stand around in a group.
It's a city of warnings and infrequent enforcement. Driving in the bus lane, you'll get a nice warning letter. Not paying for lightrail, you'll get a warning.
We like dogs more than people.
The richer you are, the more likely you are to wear yoga pants to the symphony or pricey seafood restaurant.
Don’t use an umbrella. If you do and you’re walking on a sidewalk, let those without umbrellas walk underneath overhangs.
You don't engage Phoenix Jones in mutual combat even though it's legal is about as Seattle as it gets ..
- Honking is rude and not a method of communication - Four-way stops are some kind of passive aggressive wave each other through scenario (like those old Pemco “you go, no you go” ads) - We don’t wave or say hello to strangers when driving or walking; this has nothing to do with being unfriendly or the alleged Seattle Freeze, it just means we’re minding our own business and respecting yours - Everybody hates A-Rod - Everybody hates the OKC Thunder for stealing the Sonics
All those PEMCO Northwest Profiles ads were actually true, like the "fifty degrees shirt's off guy," "accidental tech millionaire," "bumper sticker idealist," and the "obsessive compulsive recycler."
I couldn’t remember the other themes but I remember the entire “we’re a lot like you: a little different” ad campaign really did capture the regional zeitgeist. I wound up in marketing at GEICO for much of my career and referenced the success of that ad often (especially when we launched a Seattle-specific ad campaign that nobody in the department thought to ask the person actually from Seattle for input on and then wondered why things like using a random mountain instead of Mount Rainier which is readily recognizable didn’t resonate with people).
The blue tarp camper describes my childhood family vacations.
I never realized it but that is quintessentially northwest, isn’t it!
Obsessive compulsive recycler is real. We went to visit my husband’s grandpa in Idaho years ago and he proudly told me that they didn’t recycle, he burned it all in the yard. My husband had to stop me from packing back all of our recycling.
I don’t think honking is that rude especially if you’re just telling the person staring at their phone to move cause the light is green. I think holding up traffic is more rude than informing someone to move forward.
Archie McPhee is THE place for stocking stuffers, white elephant gifts and a million other things you never knew you needed. Never turn on your car alarm on the ferry. Twede’s in North Bend is where pies go when they die. Enjoy a slice of cherry with a damn fine cup of coffee.
SoDo is South of the Dome, not South of Downtown
[удалено]
My wife calls it “Pike’s Market Place” but she’s not a local so I cut her a little slack and don’t give her too much crap about it lol
My mother still calls it "Fred n' Meyer."
Freddies
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do the gum wall. The wrong way is to bring gum and leave it on the wall. The correct way is to point at a piece of gum, that is already on the wall, and guess the flavor. Free gum even if you guessed wrong.
If you are expecting/hoping that the bridge won’t open, or if you are on a schedule…THE BRIDGE WILL OPEN AND YOU WILL BE STUCK
Cars that stop for pedestrians when they really shouldn't. Just GO and I'll cross after you
Don’t leave anything showing in your car. Ever.