I think one of the funniest thoughts was about sports:
SEATTLE IS SARCASTIC ABOUT SPORTS
When I watched baseball as a child, I always felt strange when I saw the Seattle Mariners on TV. I wasn't sure then why I felt strange, but now I think I know. I think it's just that the blue uniforms they used to have made it seem like they were "merely screwing around." The blue uniforms, in combination with being called the Mariners, made me feel strongly that they actually wanted to be playing Marco Polo in a swimming pool but were forced into professional baseball and so wore blue uniforms to "continue the dream" of "screwing around" in a swimming pool for five hours every day with no responsibilities. Ken Griffey Jr. was a Mariner then and he seemed to be the perfect example of what I just typed about. He seemed to always be trying really hard at being good at baseball which to me only conveyed that he was distracting himself really hard from thoughts about wishing he lived in a special world where each day you woke up, played games in a swimming pool with other adults, ate dinner, played more games in a swimming pool, and went to sleep.
This observation cracks me, and kind of rings true. The old Mariner uniforms (even before Griffey Jr.'s time) looked pretty hysterical. Also, why else would so many people be blase about the Sonics leaving? I don't really know anyone who actually cares about this, despite the fact that the news occasionally shows some basketball fanatic who bemoans the loss. I used to love basketball and followed it pretty closely, but in later years it's just not a priority. And although I used to enjoy college football (and went to games when I was at the UW), I think most professional football is kind of laughable. I can't imagine any reason I'd go sitting out at Qwest field in the rain and cold every year to watch grown men run around in tight pants after a ball. About the only football I actually watch anymore is the Superbowl, and that's more because my family and friends get into it, and it was a good excuse to overeat and drink. This past year with my 20/20 program, it was more a good excuse to hang out with my friends and laugh as they became more and more silly with each beer. Good times.
I also liked the following observation from Lin:
SEATTLE IS ACTUALLY "BETTER" THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN AMERICA
For some reason I never heard Shya—or anyone else I know from Seattle—say anything like "In Seattle I would never be attacked on public transportation" or "If we were in Seattle right now we would not be playing two-person poker on a Saturday night drunk." People from Alabama or Florida or anywhere else seem to always be talking about how Alabama and Florida are a lot better than wherever they currently are, I think because they are trying to convince themselves that they were not "cheated" out of something by growing up in Biflow, Florida. It isn't sarcastic at all when someone from Alabama says they wish they were back in Alabama. But people from Seattle when elsewhere somehow do not ever try to convince themselves of anything, I think because they feel like if they say something like "In Seattle my chicken fingers would never be served raw by accident" it would be like saying "A poodle is a kind of dog" in that it's "an accepted fact" to people from Seattle that Seattle is "better" in the same way that it is "an accepted fact" that poodles are dogs. Someone would never try to say that a poodle is a kind of cat.
This perfectly describes how I feel about Seattle. It's not that I don't enjoy traveling and seeing other parts of the country and the world, but Seattle is just my home. I can't imagine seriously living anywhere else. Oh sure, when I retire, I'd love to have a vacation home in Hawaii or something to go spend a few months out of the year, but I'd never leave this area altogether. Seattle is just where I feel comfortable. It's home.
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