Seattle is a long way away
I’ve been in Birmingham (that’s the Alabama one) the past week and stuck in a perpetual state of Southern culture shock. 2000 miles from Seattle, and yet there are a million Starbucks in the BHM metro area, to go along with Piggly Wiggly and Goody’s. But hey, they have BBQ, something you can’t get in Seattle (well, any good barbecue).
But imagine my surprise when there were not one but THREE articles about Seattle-related companies on the front page of business section of this morning’s Birmingham News: one on Starbucks’ move to add drive-thru windows, one on Amazon’s sales numbers for the Christmas season, and one on Boeing’s run at a record number of commercial plane orders in 2005. (Sadly, I can’t link to them because the Birmingham News doesn’t link to AP stories on their website.)
Twenty years ago, Seattle was one of those places that Southerners had heard of and had a stereotyped picture of in their minds but zero cultural reference of. Now, Seattle is the home of their caffeine addiction, main internet bookstore, and the place that gives Delta their planes. Oh, and we’re hyperliberal quasi-Communists with flannel shirts and Kurt Cobain. Gawd save Seattle, y’all.
Good BBQ – OK Corral on Greenwood north of 85th
And Slow Joe’s on Westlake!
If you think that the Seattle metro area doesn’t have good BBQ, you haven’t been looking hard enough. OK Corral, Slo Joe’s, Pecos Pit, Dixie’s, Willie’s, Jones, to name just a few
don’t forget 3 Pigs in Bellevue!
i feel ya on the south thing, i’ve been stuck in georgia for 13 months and cannot WAIT to get back to seattle…
i’d say to most southerners, seattle equals rain and liberals and they stay far away.. which works for me!