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Notes On The State of Virginia, Part II
- You haven't really seen guys who work fast until you've seen four members of the United States Navy picking up women in a hotel bar. Evidently the thing about uniforms is true.
- Hotel staff seems not to appreciate the casual stylishness of my sneakers/jeans/suit jacket ensemble. Instead, it's all funny looks.
- Reports of latte/liberalism correlation are off-base. They serve Starbucks in the hotel lobby. And then there's another Starbucks across the street!
- Speaking of which, there's a curiously large number of wiggers milling around in vicinity of said Starbucks.
- I also see that prices at Hair Cuttery are lower here, and the models in the ads sport the same urban casual look.
March 4, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
Although my own experience is also largely limited to the blue states, I always did think that the supposed popularity of Starbucks only among liberals was a little dubious.
Posted by: James Kabala | Mar 4, 2005 7:43:32 PM
it's all funny looks
They're probably thinking, "That's Matthew Yglesias, the blogger!!"
Posted by: ogged | Mar 4, 2005 7:52:12 PM
Ditch the friggin suit coat and look the wiggers in the eye, unless of course they start breaking out the rhymes and getting hostile. If that happens I'd politely excuse yourself and seek refuge in the hotel room. Btw, this is not an original thought, but Starbucks is the new McDonalds...
Posted by: fnook | Mar 4, 2005 8:04:29 PM
Get a grip. Virginia is a swing state, and Norfolk is hardly the "deep south" part of it, even if it is not nominal red-state Arlington.
Posted by: Steve | Mar 4, 2005 8:16:04 PM
Too true Steve. Off topic, has anyone heard about the shooting death, by US forces, of the secret service agent protecting the recently released Italian journalist in Iraq. Awful. It is, perhaps, the quintessential Iraq War tragedy.
Posted by: fnook | Mar 4, 2005 8:19:37 PM
Advice for Fitting in Amongst the Southerners:
- Your best pickup line in the hotel bar is: guess what the number one result is if you google "matthew".
- You can make friends at the hotel bar by repeatedly insisting that they show the Wizards game. Explain that all "real" hotels already have League Pass.
- To put the hotel staff at ease, just employ the all-purpose Southern greeting of "Allahu Akbar".
Posted by: Petey | Mar 4, 2005 8:23:54 PM
Way back (like, oh, five years ago) liberals were supposed to hate Starbucks for driving away independent cafes, often by setting up shop right next door.
I guess in the Bush era, it's "blue state" to acknowledge that coffee might come in more varieties than regular, decaf, and instant.
Posted by: Paul Callahan | Mar 4, 2005 8:36:35 PM
I think it's safe to say that connoisseurship of sensual pleasures like caffeine and nicotine is not confined to residents of blue state enclaves.
Posted by: fnook | Mar 4, 2005 8:44:47 PM
God bless you, Matt! You think you're in the south because you're in Virginia!
Brother, you'll need to spend a little more time on the Interstate before you can start whistling Dixie.
But, I'll tell you, you can't get far enough away from the Mason/Dixon line to escape wiggers and Starbucks. I live in Baton Rouge, LA, and it hardly gets further south than this. Like as not, if you hear hip-hop thumping in the vehicle next to you at a light, it's a couple of white boys in a hot-rod pickup truck. And, more than a few red-blooded red-staters are drinking lattes because there is a coffee shop on practically every block, and the handful of liberals I know can't be the only ones keeping them busy.
Have fun in Bush Country!
Posted by: B. Henderson | Mar 4, 2005 8:46:13 PM
Martha Stewart should live in that hotel. Her Cappucinno machine is broken and she's not allowed to visit Starbuck's. Cruel and unusual punishment!
Posted by: pgl | Mar 4, 2005 8:57:38 PM
"there's a curiously large number of wiggers milling around..."
!
You're going to have your liberal credentials revoked if you keep on saying stuff like that. Oh and "milling around" = "loitering".
Posted by: David Thompson | Mar 4, 2005 9:08:31 PM
One thing to keep in mind: Virginia is definitely following Florida to become the second "non-Southern" Southern state thanks to a massive influx of Northerners. In 1992 and 1996 the gap between Clinton's nationwide margins and his (losing) margin in Virginia was 10 points; for Gore it was 8; for Kerry it was only 6. (And 2004 is the first election since -- I believe -- 1928 in which Virginia was more Democratic than West Virginia!) It's not quite at the point yet at which it will be worthwhile for the Democrats to start seriously contesting it in presidential elections, but give it another decade.
Posted by: Bruce Moomaw | Mar 4, 2005 9:08:57 PM
I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. I live in Charlottesville, (Proudly Blue!) Virginia, and I can tell you that I'm not terribly sure that Norfolk is "southern". Too much gubmint. Too many soldiers and sailors from all over. You need to go to some place like Southside Virginia, or Piedmont, South Carolina, or the Eastern Shore, or Deepest Mississippi, where your most frequent thought will be "Is that guy speaking English?" There's a whole world in America for you to explore, Matthew. It's just the Third one. By the way, if you make it over to Charlottesvile, I promise a free tour of Monticello and a half-price latté.
Posted by: Brian C.B. | Mar 4, 2005 9:09:14 PM
I just caught the title; it was a lot funnier when I thought it was just Matt crossing the river into Alexandria or some such and remarking about how strange and different everything was.
Posted by: mike | Mar 4, 2005 9:34:44 PM
I'll second the people saying you're hardly in the heart of red america, although you can get Starbucks there, too. Oh, and I question the appropriateness of the word "wigger." Kind of an obvious, troubling root word there.
Posted by: ews | Mar 4, 2005 9:38:25 PM
Matt:
You are a boy in serious need of a road trip.
Get some of your lads, rent a car, and do a loop through the real south, off the interstate. You might learn something.
Here in Waco, the heart of Bush Country there are Starbucks all over the place. They follow money not "blue" and there is plenty of money in the south too. Heck, there's a Starbucks across the street from my mother-in-law's apartment in Santiago Chile. Right next to the Tony Roma's and TGI Friday.
Posted by: Kent | Mar 4, 2005 9:58:52 PM
That word is quite offensive on at least 2 levels (the presumption of stereotypes that give it meaning and the afforementioned slur on which it's based). Matt what are you thinking?
My first thought was maybe you didn't get it, but sure enough, the link explains it.
And another thing: lame. Frat boy dictionary dot com would have been a much more appropriate resource for that little bit of slang.
Posted by: Stress | Mar 4, 2005 10:35:53 PM
Having picked up a marine, I can assure you, it's not just the uniforms, it's the muscles as well.
Shhhh.... Don't ask, don't tell.
Posted by: MDtoMN | Mar 4, 2005 11:06:08 PM
You tell 'im, Kent!
Posted by: Saheli | Mar 4, 2005 11:31:46 PM
So what's the slur for a guy with a Hispanic name that looks white?
Posted by: James Slusher | Mar 5, 2005 12:31:29 AM
C'mon, Stress. Those pictures are hilarious.
Posted by: Dan | Mar 5, 2005 12:35:37 AM
At least the Hair Cuttery has a position on Social Security, homies.
Posted by: 16 | Mar 5, 2005 12:52:51 AM
So what's the slur for a guy with a Hispanic name that looks white?
A Juanabe, obviously.
Posted by: anonymous coward | Mar 5, 2005 3:04:58 AM
As a native Kentuckian, I know that saying "wigger" will get your ass kicked just as quickly as saying it's 14th-letter counterpart around the right crowd of folks.
Besides, that word was funny in, oh, middle school. :0)
Posted by: Garrett | Mar 5, 2005 3:59:39 AM
How you gonna keep 'em down in DC now that they've seen the farm?
And B. Henders, Baton Rouge is southern, yes, but it's a town -- a college town at that. Infected with secularism and effeteness and the like.
About the most southern place I've been (and I've been around the south a lot) is the ShackUp Inn in Clarksdale Mississippi. Clarksdale was home to Robert Johnson and site of the famous Crossroads. It's a nowhere burg.
Some blues-lovers moved some old sharecropper shacks to their land, set them up so they have electricity and modernish bathrooms and kitchens and TV (that only plays a blues channel).
Sure, there are more authentically southern places to stay if you have friends or family in the area, but this was an interesting stop on a drive back from New Orleans.
Here's ShackUp Inn's website and here's a Wired story about the place.
Decent barbecue, too. And good Mississippi tamales in Clarksdale proper.
I have no financial interest in this place. Just liked the funkiness.
Posted by: rifffle | Mar 5, 2005 5:36:10 AM
