Monday, January 04, 2010

Things I Love about San Francisco:

You never see empty Skoal tins on the sidewalk.

24 comments:

the walking man said...

...because they are made from plastic now. Tin has value, the plastic has a place in a floating pile halfway between San Fransisco and Hawaii.



Not much do I truly find disgusting but that tobacco juice pretty much tops the list.

secret agent woman said...

True, although there were far more homeelss people on the sidewalks in SF when I visited than there are here. Good and bad everywhere, you know?

secret agent woman said...

(BTW< I don't mean to imply thathomeless people are "bad," just that it's a societal problem.)

nick said...

Sorry, the Skoal reference is lost on me. If it has some special meaning in the UK, I'm not aware of it. Plenty of rubbish littering the sidewalks though, casually discarded by all those people who think rubbish somehow clears itself up.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Mark,

Plastic? I had no idea.

Chewing and dipping tobacco were ubiquitous in NC and TN when I lived there, but my NY sensibilities never got used to it. (Bless their hearts.)

Agent,

Good point! I got what you meant, and can't argue.

Nick,

Skoal is a popular brand of smokeless tobacco which is very prevalent in some parts of the US. It is stored between the lips and gums and then spat in a disgusting black stream into a spittoon or onto the street. If you've ever seen this act performed, you wish you hadn't.

CiCi said...

I always wondered if it burned or felt bad at all when the "tobaccy" was held next to the inside cheek and gum. I remember so many years ago visiting my then husband's uncle who had part of his throat removed and part of his face because that was his chosen habit.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Babe,

Ewwwww, that made me cringe. I don't know if it hurts them, but it sure hurts me when I see it.

Anonymous said...

I would somehow expect that to be so in SF. May many blessings come to you in the new year.

nick said...

That sounds totally disgusting. Glad it's never caught on hereabouts. Though drunken mayhem on public streets is quite bad enough.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

It's disgusting. Right up there with picking noses and pants that are bunched up in... places.

EW.


Wyoming's total population is 500,000; 2 people per square mile. An enormous percentage of those residents enthusiastically support the smokeless tobacco industry. It is, in fact, still legal in that state for a person to have a spittoon at their desk.


Scarlett & Viaggiatore

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

Things I love about SF include you.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Ian,

I, too, would have expected this but I am often surprised.

A glorious new year to you and Wendy.

Nick,

I think it is one of the more disgusting human behaviors - and there's so much to choose from.

Scarlett,

Remind me not to move to Wyoming, although I would love to see the Grand Tetons.

And thank you for always being so kind.

Meggie said...

I had never heard of skoal. It sounds utterly disgusting. We see enough spitting when it is Ramadan & thoe who have come to live with our culture persist in that habit.
That makes me sound racist. I am not really (I hope) but I am vehemently anti religion of any form. Especially one with disgusting side effects..but then they are all guilty of that!

Upon reading of Lewis, it makes me fear for my future with Gom. His mother had Alzheimers, she nearly drove me insane with the limited contact I had with her. I can see it does make a difference when you love someone, though.
I send love for the New Year.

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

And I thought Skoal was what you shouted if you were Scandinavian before downing a large jug of beer.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

From Bondurant north through Jackson Hole all the way up to the Montana border which lies in Yellowstone, it is breathtakingly beautiful; between the Tetons and the Wind River mountains... short of that, the rest of the state is not worth looking at.

S & V

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Meggie,

Love does make a difference but it's still a maddening disease. And your husband may not get it - in most of its forms, it's quite arbitrary.

Calvin,

I think the toast which means "to your health" has no "a" in it. But I hate beer so I'm hardly an expert.

Scarlett,

I've seen many pictures of that part of the country and it's jawdroppingly beautiful.

Maria said...

My brother in law is a big Skoal user. It almost makes me want to throw up when I see him tuck that shit into his cheek.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Maria,

Patrice's husband, right? Why does this not surprise me when I already know so many unlovely things about this man of no redeeming social value?

On a limb with Claudia said...

hmm... there used to be a lot of skoal in the SoMa at the leather bars when I lived there. I used to go for the AMFAR project I was working on - disgusting habit chewing - leather bars too but that's another story.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Claudia,

Leather bars...? Hmmm. I seem to have missed those in my research. I'm so remiss.

Jo said...

I guess you don't see many spitoons there either. :- Chewing skoal is just disgusting. It reminds me of the poem:

Tobacco is a filthy weed,
I like it;
It satisfies no normal need,
I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean,
It's the worst darned stuff I've ever seen...
I like it.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Jo,

I remember that poem from my childhood, but never understood how anyone could like smoking or chewing the nasty stuff. Night-blooming Nicotiana is a lovely plant, though, with pungent flowers.

Unknown said...

One of the many things I love about Stephen is that he does not use this stuff. I have lived with spit cans around...gross and stinky.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Jackie,

Now if you could only get him to give up smoking...