And which city's denizens can't deal with eye contact between strangers in a non-maddening fashion?

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I NOMINATE CHICAGO! ARRRGH I'm going to kill one of these monkeys! Every other place I've ever been, people passing on the street generally either avoid eye contact (Paris, New York, Philly) or they make brief eye contact and then smile, nod, even say hello, offer a dog for petting (light), to acknowledge the other person's existence/humanity (Wisconsin). I mean, if you live in a city and don't have time to acknowledge every person you pass, then go all the way with it! It makes sense. But not here in Chicago. No, here practically every one of these retarded motherfuckers will start staring at you the minute they spot you and refuse to either change their DUMB DUMB DUMB blank stare or look away till they pass. No smile, once in a while a hint of frown, but always a steady, mouthbreathing stare. If you don't stare back they just stare harder and blanker. Deep-dish-pizza-scarfing protosimians! Wait, i take that back -- protosimians are way too cute to resemble Chicagoans (Chicago men = ugly ugly ugly ugly SHAVE THAT 'STACHE, YOU GIMP!). And probably too bright, come to think of it. Has all that half-cooked dough stuck in these people's brains? Don't they realize that staring at another primate is a time-honored method of picking a fight??? Are there any other cities where people manage to be this fucking rude before they even START making stupid noises?

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, in Boston you would probably get punched.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe you always have some food stuck around your mouth.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

You should go to London.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 8 December 2003 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I definitely recommend you don't move to LA. It is very impolite not to stare there.

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I like staring contests.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I've lived in Chicago for 13 years and I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I am willing to allow for funny-lookingness on my part here. I mean, sure, I'm sporting these size-40 red-and-orange paddleshoes. But then why don't people in other cities stare at me like this? Are Chicagoans just immune to horror?

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't even get me started on this issue, which makes me totally nuts. EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE I am annoyed with how the majority of people I encounter on the street here in SF will stare blankly ahead, lips pursed, as they walk past you. People can actually walk into you, or practically into you, and NEVER EVER even look at you for one split-second. I mean it is so obvious that they can see you, why must it be necessary to keep the eyes perfectly fixed on some imaginary point in the distance, zombie-like? I'm not saying that it's preferable to stare at people as in the example above, and I'm not expecting friendly glances and warm smiles from everyone I see on a city sidewalk, but this all too common behavior really bothers me.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Ann, it sounds like Chicagoans aren't allowing you unfettered voyeuristic access to them!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

A-haaa!

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.bloomsbury.com/Images/Books/Batch2/0747545073.JPG

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

That's Spassky on the right - he's the world champion.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I am only trying to gawk at the women, I swear to christ (see my review of Chicago men above). Well, and a few of the men. But glancing blows! Glancing blows!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

but the key question, which city's denizens can't deal with brown eye contact?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't they call it redeye these days? I've never been there but my guess would be... Dallas. Don't ride 'em, cowboy.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

lick it don't bite it if you don't want redeye

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

We call it redeye in Chicago cuz all those blank stares put us in a biting mood.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

one time a lady was demonstrating how to use a lathe and I realised that this guy I had never noticed before was staring at me. I glanced away for a moment and back, to check if he really was staring at me, and, yes, he was really was. I glanced away, again, and back. then I gave him a, kinda like, "excuse me?" look, to which he smiled creepily and looked away.

sitting in a cafe, waiting for my parents to join me, two middle aged women were sitting at an adjacent table. one got up and went, I assume, to the toilet. the other began staring at me. at first I thought she was just staring into space. glancing away and back, from time to time, I realised that she really was just staring at me. my parents arrived and I told them about the woman. my dad said, as they were approaching my table, he had noticed that she had been staring and my mum said that she probably wondered why I hadn't ordered, yet.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

III

I am staring at you now

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:56 (twenty-one years ago)

AUGH I am giving you REDEYE NOW!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

8 |

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:18 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread has given me an idea. From now on, I'm going to wink at everyone I pass by. I'm sure it will make life more interesting!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

; |

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know how to not do the zombie staring at middle distance thing

― Flex Kavannah (Ferg), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:34 (twenty-one years ago)

The zombie stare really seems like the only polite way to deal with large numbers of people, if you ask me. If you can't acknowledge someone's humanity, then don't invade their privacy. I mean, sure, you want to girl/boy watch; we all have prurient interests, not to mention curiosity. But there are ways of glancing at people that don't make them feel pinned like frogs in formaldehyde. If you're going to look at a particular person for any length of time, cri-yi, wave or something!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I might buy a hat so I can doff it respectfully

― Flex Kavannah (Ferg), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel like (despite my attempts at being clear) I got similar responses last time I made this point on a recent thread. I am in NO WAY advocating STARING at people on the street. I find that creepy and rude. However, in the course of walking along, I (maybe that's the whole thing, the "I"... maybe nobody else like is like this) naturally look at things in my path; building, street signs, cars, etc. I don't just stare fixedly ahead, eyes ummoving. Especially when someone is walking towards you very closely, or coming at an angle that takes some navigation to avoid hitting them, it seems only reasonable that you would, if only briefly, look at them (notice I did not say stare at them.) Not everyone falls victim to this behavior, but I see it more often than not. What is behind it? Are people too self-involved, or too scared to actually acknowledge other human beings ESPECIALLY when their paths are practically crossing? I don't even know why I'm bothering to write this follow-up. Also, expecting "privacy" on city sidewalks is unrealistic. Please note once again I am not advocating making eye contact with everyone you see on the street, as I certainly don't do that. But there are times when it is polite, and dare I say it, normal.

― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I love New York: sure, people do have the tendency to sing along to their Walkmen or Discmen or I-Pods here, especially if they're listening to sub-par gangsta rap, but one point of etiquette that New Yorkers have down is the art of avoiding unnecessary eye contact. It's very simple: keep your eyes as level to the street as you can without being swiped by oncoming traffic. A glance up is okay every now and then, but should you make eye contact, for the love of god, don't let it linger overtly. I find this formula very easy to follow and although it's often construed as rudeness, it's nothing more than a key point of what our dear Momus calls "the morality of high-density living". I don't think I could stand the constant exposure to the unblinking gaze that a city like Chicago would inflict upon me. There's nothing wrong with staring at the sidewalk, goddamnit. We're captains of our own fate that way, bowed but unbloody.

― justin s., Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Also New York has taught me how to distinguish between two mutually incompatible types of stare: those administered rather harmlessly by people who are trying to find their way, and that special "I ran out of crack and I'm looking for someone to scream at" stare that calls for an immediate submersion of the opposing gaze. There are innumerable variants in between but if you can't establish this particular distinction right away, you should get the hell off the sidewalk.

― justin s., Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~weyrbrat/fanfic/anime/dragon/

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

People in Seattle are often very polite for the most part. I feel bad, though, whenever i tell them "sorry, I don't have any change"

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

This fall I had French friends come to visit, and they noticed all kinds of things on the street that I had never noticed before. Little patterns in the concrete, artworks, dead birds. We figured out why they looked and I didn't: in France people don't clean it up when their dogs take a dump, so yr average Frenchie pays much closer attention to where his feet are going.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

That really was mean of you, DB. I only needed 75c for a cup of coffee.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I live in Milwaukee and I do not try make eye contact with anyone, and as far as I know, nobody really tries to make eye contact with me. I do not pet people's dogs, lightly or otherwise. Unless the dog is really cute.
One time, however, some jerk passing on the sidewalk smacked me in the forehead with his umbrella really hard. On purpose. And it wasn't even a rainy day, so he obviously had the umbrella just to smack people with. I'd prefer an open-mouthed stare to that.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

what about an open mouthed stare from a dead person sitting in a leather swivel chair with arrows through them?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

but, seriously, like sean says, I look at things as I walk, including people. in fact, I mostly look at people as I walk. or do I? I don't know. maybe sometimes. the difference is, they do not know I am looking at them and if they find out then I will smile politely and look elsewhere, giving them the impression that I have merely glanced somewhere they happened to be instead of, in reality, having stared at them and followed them for a great distance.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't even know what to say to that.
xpost

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

oh, you don't get the stare until you've swung the chair around because, when you entered the room, it was turned away and all you could see were lifeless legs dangling from the other side and arrowheads through the back of the chair from the front.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

http://snow.prohosting.com/ukband/images/thousandyardstare_photo.jpg

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, then I guess it depends on who's in the chair.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

what if it was YOU?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you trying to tell me something?

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

no, I am just trying to provoke thought about & discussion of staring.

; )

[p.s. YOU'RE DEAD]

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

j/k!!!!!

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

STOP STALKING ME!

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

you don't mean that.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

You know that.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

'STALKING: OK when they don't mind it.'

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

[removed by request]

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

does he mind, colin?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"Please note once again I am not advocating making eye contact with everyone you see on the street, as I certainly don't do that. But there are times when it is polite, and dare I say it, normal.
-- Sean (saturnsf@"

Well, sure! Brief eye contact. Add a nod or a smile. It's the mouthbreathingness that gets to me. I understand that you aren't advocating staring.

"Are people too self-involved, or too scared to actually acknowledge other human beings ESPECIALLY when their paths are practically crossing?"

No, I think they're acknowledging the fact that it's impossible to escape human contact in a city without shutting yourself in your apartment -- and mine happens to be tiny. People aren't ignoring you -- of course they know you're there -- they are trying to give you space and preserve their own space.

"Also, expecting "privacy" on city sidewalks is unrealistic."

Expecting to commit murder or masturbation outdoors is unrealistic. I don't think that asking not to have people bore through you with their eyes is, however. As Justin/Momus say above, when all of us have to live on top of each other -- look, either I'm trapped in my apartment or I have to be around people. Even in the park, you can't get away from each other in a big city. So dammit, don't act like I walked out of my house just so you can stare at the freak, motherfuckers!!!! Leaving the house is not my cordial social invitation to every subnormal in Illinois. We're stuck with each other. Yeah, it's ridiculous and weird not too look at an approaching person. It's also ridiculous to take off your clothes and 69, especially if you get all excited and forget to take your socks off too. What's wrong with being absurd and silly if it feels better?

I agree that acknowledging people is good. I just define "acknowledging" differently, I think.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

ann,

i don't mean to offend, but don't tell me you're one of those people that resists attention drawn to them but they have (for example) a 30 inch purple mohawk and 29 facial tattoos and piercings.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"what are you looking at?"

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it is safe to say from her postings alone that Ann is the very model of the mousy, withdrawn individual. Oh wait.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:44 (twenty-one years ago)

";-)"

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I've lived in Chicago for 15 years, and I haven't really noticed this. If anything, most people tend to ignore passers-by, which is fine by me.

Recently I've moved to a "normal" neighborhood (e.g. non-hipster/Wicker Park) and people here tend to smile and say hello more as I walk my dog or whatever, and that's fine too. I'm wondering whereabouts you live, Ann?

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I live in Uptown, where actually people seem kinda less prone to stare than in other nabes, except for the medded-out folks smoking in front of the halfway home; they're annoying but since they're mostly bona fide nuts you really can't resent them. Maybe they do see a big purple monster when I walk by. I don't try to dress weird and I have no earrings in my face; however, I do have a very low tolerance for the cold so maybe my excessive protective bundling makes me look like I'm trying to hide something when I walk through nice neighborhoods, which tend to be the worst places as far as blank dumb stares go. Although actually in affluent nabes the looks tend toward hostility, as though they can smell the wrongness on me.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

sometimes i make eye contact, sometimes i smile, sometimes i am ducking my face from the wind, sometimes i am spacing out. it's hard to give any final reason for eye contact or lack thereof, at least according to my own esoteric considerations:)

― noname today (mandinina), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan Perry needs to immediately come to thread and tell everyone the story he told us at the Boston FAP about the fist-shaking staring guy.

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, now I've compiled an on-line image of myself as a nose poking out of a huge pile of wool and down that's balanced on top of a 4-foot-long pair of multicolored clown shoes. Enjoy!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The HARTLUND uv AMURIKHANA tour

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 04:14 (twenty-one years ago)

hm... but people stare that way in summer, too... maybe I just radiate a cloud of evil and people are trying to figure out what this dangerous substance is.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 05:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a pretty boring childhood so to entertain my self on those long walks to school and back I invented all sorts of silly games. One of them involved staring at people passing by and having imaginary stare-fights! with middleage housewifes and local winos. Most of them would shun away after a couple of seconds of intense eye contact, but there were some true mentalist that would stare back at you in one of those "yeah, I'm crazy, so whatch you gonna do about it?" ways.

― Neon Noodle, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I've found that most people walk on the right side of the sidewalk, so I like to walk on the left side on my way to school and make people get out of my way. Only once has someone else refused to move, and we walked right into each other. We didn't look at each other, though.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 08:52 (twenty-one years ago)

refused to move?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a bittersweet symphony, this life

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The eye-contact thing you describe in Chicago is actually typical of the midwest. When midwesterners move to other cities, they get offended when people don't make eye contact, or only make fleeting eye contact - I did.

Depending on the city making eye contact breifly means:
I saw you and I don't like you (chicago)
I saw you and I respect you (boston/newyork)
I saw you, come and talk to/bother me (london)

So what happens when you deviate from the norm?
In Chicago if you don't look at people, that is a taken as a bit anti-social, so that is why you end up holding eye contact a little longer than in other cities. In London if someone makes long eye contact it is because some one is flirting with you or they are a psycho, so that is why no eye contact is preferred.
In Boston and New York, if you don't make eye contact on purpose, you might actually provoke a fight. And if you stare, you also might provoke a fight!

― marianna, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

fights in boston from not making eye contact, huh??
i shoegaze. who needs eyes when you know every corner. people walt too slow everywhere.

― kephm, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

yes ,everyone needs to waltz faster through the streets of boston please

― kephm, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Argh, that's my other pet peeve about Chicago walking! The slowest people walk in the largest groups, or if there's only one or two of them they still somehow manage to barricade the entire sidewalk.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

What you've done there is confuse walking with wanking.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

wanking barricade?

― raphael diligent (Cozen), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

or x-post?

― raphael diligent (Cozen), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

People in Berkeley say hi all the time, though most of them are crazy.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

People in Seattle are often very polite for the most part. I feel bad, though, whenever i tell them "sorry, I don't have any change"
-- donut bitch (do...), December 9th, 2003.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That really was mean of you, DB. I only needed 75c for a cup of coffee.
-- Layna Andersen (layn...), December 9th, 2003.

You were really going to get a chai instead of a coffee. That's why I refused. I KNOW YOUR TYPE!

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"What you've done there is confuse walking with wanking. "

You sound surprised.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish more people would play sidewalk chicken with me. Milwaukee is full of wusses.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

What's "sidewalk chicken"? I'm picturing bats and bits of broken glass.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

See, that would be way more fun than sissy staring contests. "Ooooh you're so tuff, you look at me in a way that makes me want to do illegal things to your body that do NOT require removal of pants."

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Sidewalk chicken is just where you walk straight at someone and wait for them to move out of the way, and they do the same, and if nobody moves, you crash into each other. I think people do it with cars sometimes.

― kirsten (kirsten), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

This is my last comment on this thread, but I hold what kirsten claims to do in extremely low regard. She's lucky she hasn't encounted someone with a low tolerance for such nonsense; myself for example.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, yeah.

― kirsten (kirsten), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 00:35 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

the angriest cities in America - http://www.wsmv.com/health/9681978/detail.html

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 25 August 2006 04:37 (eighteen years ago)

florida: home of countless cops episodes!

― el borracho (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 25 August 2006 05:10 (eighteen years ago)

YEAH NUMBER FOUR BABY

― PARTYMAN (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 August 2006 05:15 (eighteen years ago)

haha i'd also just like to point out that numbers one and three are also the homes of our sister papers. surely this is no coincidence.

― PARTYMAN (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 August 2006 05:15 (eighteen years ago)

I used to live in New York City
Everything there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said twelve-thirty

Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walkin'
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can't keep myself from talkin'

At first so strange to feel so friendly
To say "Good mornin'" and really mean it
To feel these changes happenin' in me
But not to notice till I feel it

― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 25 August 2006 05:17 (eighteen years ago)

"Orlando has never been a strategic military target, and yet the folks there are furious,"

a real headscratcher...of sorts?

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 25 August 2006 05:39 (eighteen years ago)

I think Brian Setzer said it best, "Look at me once, look at me twice, look at me again and there's a-gonna be a fight." Two glances seems to be the limit of acceptibility for eye contact.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 25 August 2006 06:35 (eighteen years ago)

I think Brian Setzer said it best

you lost me there

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 25 August 2006 06:40 (eighteen years ago)

I was going to name St. Petersburg for the same reason: "No, here practically every one of these retarded motherfuckers will start staring at you the minute they spot you and refuse to either change their DUMB DUMB DUMB blank stare or look away till they pass." Sometimes people stare at you like they want you to DIE until you pass, sometimes (e.g. escalator to subway) it's the relaxing anonymity of the blank stare.

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 25 August 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago)

It makes me sort of happy that this doesn't correspond to the list of hard-drinkin' cities (go midwest!).

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 25 August 2006 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

haha 'nashville'. somehow that makes complete sense.

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 25 August 2006 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

i would have thought corpus christi would be a whole lot angrier

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 25 August 2006 14:08 (eighteen years ago)

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