Comments on: Obscenities Ordinary in NY, Not in SF? http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/ Saluting San Francisco's Mission District Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:29:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: don bincente http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1627 don bincente Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:12:45 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1627 maybe because all the bad attitudes come from points east.

i love this thing about carpetbaggers wishin frisco was more like the crappy places they come from.
we californians try to take it slow & easy but there’s always some new-be not gettin w/ the program.
we have become LA.
sorry for the rant but were on edge down here in the flats.

real mission

]]> By: ct http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1626 ct Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:03:25 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1626 @Jen: welcome to SF (I just skimmed your blog). I find Boston/NYC people tend to lose it for a little while after a couple months in the Bay. It happened a little to me and a bit more to some friends. One of them (a Long Island boy — he’s since moved back) told me, “These people have given up on life.” He was referring to the way they form orderly lines to get on BART at Embarcadero, and the way they don’t jaywalk.

For me, it was probably 2-3 years before I stopped missing the attitude. People would ask me what I missed about Boston, and I would say — quite honestly — that I missed how angry everyone acted all the time.

But that’s all behind me now. My blood has run thin, and I can’t take temperatures below 50 or above 80. Standing at the corner and waiting for the light seems prudent. I don’t shout at people as much. It’s not so bad.

If you’re looking for a bar with pool and darts that’s a little more like an east coast neighborhood bar, try Glen Park Station (Diamond St, near Glen Park BART). It’s my favorite, though maybe just because I live down that way. The crowd is significantly more local and less transient 20-something. Also: free Cheez-Its.

Lastly, Brock wins.

]]> By: johnny0 http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1625 johnny0 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:04:08 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1625 I find what *really* gets a San Franciscan to react is telling them they are going to have bad karma for a car-related offence. My wife totally guilted a guy who stole her parking spot that way. She called him out on karma, and when she came back around the block and he had vanished.

On the other hand, be careful of its power — my wife nearly had to pull me out of a fight when I called out this girl who tried to steal a cab we had flagged down. I told cab-stealing-girl, “Oooh, you’re going to have baaaad karma for that.” She flew into a *rage*, saying “I’m a BUDDHIST!! I can’t have bad karma!!!”

Everyone else waiting for cabs starts laughing at her and I reply, “You’re the most hypocritical buddhist I’ve ever seen — go ahead and take the cab, you need it more than we do. You’re coming back as a bug.”

She *loses* it and starts cursing me out, at which point my wife jumps in saying “You DO NOT talk to my husband that way.” But before things come to blows, crazy-cab-girl notices that the karma cab has done a u-turn to escape and starts chasing it. While she is distracted we grab a cab that had come around the other corner.

Go karma!

]]> By: C. http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1624 C. Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:17:59 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1624 It is indeed as Brock so beautifully describes. But I think many San Franciscans would benefit from this sort of occasional directness. Also, this reminds me of a story in which a NY friend actually got pulled over for shouting obscenities at traffic from a moving car during her first visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The friendly officer said something like, “Getting a little upset at the traffic there, eh? Maybe you need to stop and calm down a bit.”

]]> By: Jen http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1623 Jen Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:25:26 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1623 @ ct – I have yet to launch a finger at anyone, but that’s because I’ve been lucky enough to not get honked at. (Thanks, bike lane on Valencia!) In the city I’m from, it’s a near-daily occurrence to get honked at, or my favorite, “get on the sidewalk”. I’m a champ at launching a finger behind me – but hope to not exercise that option so regularly here.

]]> By: zinzin http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1622 zinzin Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:05:44 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1622 Brock: Funny. True. Sad.

]]> By: brock http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1621 brock Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:44:34 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1621 We do not act this way in San Francisco or California. How vulgar. The polite thing to do was to talk shit about the driver behind their back, or snap an image of the car and license number, and post it on one of our many fine internet sites.

It’s how things are done around here.

]]> By: ct http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1620 ct Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:30:48 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1620 It’s different here. When I moved from Boston 4 years ago, I was alarmed at how seriously people in the Bay Area take the middle finger. I had a guy chase me down the street in their car, leaning on the horn, after I gave him the bird. In Massachusetts, you flip off everyone. You flip off your dog, your mother, the guy who makes the doughnuts.

]]> By: troymccluresf http://www.missionmission.org/2008/09/08/obscenities-ordinary-in-ny-not-in-sf/#comment-1619 troymccluresf Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:10:06 +0000 http://missionmission.wordpress.com/?p=1011#comment-1619 Personally, I think more people out there deserve to have strings of obscenities directed at them. Then again, the first time I visited NYC, I was wishing all the slow-ass locals would get out of my fucking way.

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