Ewww! Seattle gum wall a top germy attraction

KomoNews.com ^ | Jun 13, 2009 | KOMO Staff

[Daffynition]

SEATTLE -- A Seattle landmark has landed on a dubious list as one of the world's top five germiest attractions.

The 'gum wall' outside the Market Theater at Pike Place Market comes in at number two on the list released by TripAdvisor.

Starting in the 1990s, people would stick their gum on the wall as they waited for tickets.

The wall was scraped clean twice, but people couldn't seem to stop sticking their gum up and down the wall, and now it's a tourist attraction.

Ireland's Blarney Stone, which is kissed by up to 400,000 visitors each year, topped the list of unsanitary vacation stops.

[Daffynition]

Dear Yahoo!:

How did the term "gumshoe" come to refer to a detective?

T
Chicago, Illinois

Dear T:

We set out to uncover the truth with a Yahoo! search on "gumshoe origin" and were soon hot on the trail.

Our first stop was the Private Investigator's Mall, where you can shop for a PI. A message board on the web site offered several theories as to how this unusual term became slang for a private investigator or detective.

The first post proposed that the term "gumshoe" was a tribute to the sticking power of a PI -- "you can't get them off. They stick." Cute explanation, but we weren't sure of its veracity. We read on.

The next theory suggests that the name originated from the gum-rubber soles on the shoes worn by detectives and PIs way back when. The rubber soles allowed the investigator to move quietly and avoid detection. Sounded plausible, but still we persisted in our investigation.

The final theory offered on the page suggested that the term originated because private investigators did so much walking in bad neighborhoods to interview people and gather information that they inevitably ended up with gum on their shoes. Hmmm, sounded a little suspect to us.

We returned to our search results and tried to pick up the trail before it got cold. Our next stop was a web page called Cool Words, dedicated to the etymology of interesting words. The entry on "gumshoe" backed the rubber-sole shoe theory.

The evidence was piling up, but we wanted to consult a trusted informant before concluding our investigation. We turned to (appropriately enough) The Word Detective, a reliable source. The site corroborates the rubber-sole theory, stating:

It turns out that the original "gumshoes" of the late 1800's were shoes or boots made of gum rubber, the soft-soled precursors of our modern sneakers... At the turn of the century "to gumshoe" meant to sneak around quietly as if wearing gumshoes, either in order to rob or, conversely, to catch thieves. "Gumshoe man" was originally slang for a thief, but by about 1908 "gumshoe" usually meant a police detective, as it has ever since.

Case closed.

[JoeProBono]

[LiberConservative]

That is freakin’ disgusting. Seattle should be ashamed.

[Daffynition]

It’s a sign on the way to the queue ...:)

[radiohead]

I lived in Seattle for 5 years and never heard of this place. Ewww.

[Ditter]

So you have kissed the Blarney stone too I see. It really helped me, I kissed it in the summer of 1963 and I have been full of blarney ever since. ;0)

[Daffynition]

I know people who have lived there all of their lives ... and don't know about it. Must be they are not very proud of it. Seattle can be so weird.

[Daffynition]

[jla]

No, I passed on kissing a stone. I had taken my elderly mother over and she wanted to kiss it.

'63? How did you happen to be in Cork at that time?

[JoeProBono]

Seattle's Weird Pigs

[Ditter]

I was on a vacation to the British Isles. We had a car and driver everywhere we went, and we went EVERYWHERE. It was a fabulous month. I can’t image going to Blarney Castle and not going up and kissing the stone. Why not?

[mamelukesabre]

because people like me pee on it.

[Ditter]

The rock on the ground is NOT the Blarney Stone. The Blarney Stone is part of Blarney Castle pretty far up in the ruins. Kissing it is not easy either, you need help. There are several old guys there to hold you while they lower you, upside down and backwards, to get in a position to kiss it. I have pictures of me kissing it and my husband ran across them a few years ago. He could not figure out what was going on.

[ViLaLuz]

They forgot that meteor in a toilet-seat looking frame at Mecca.

[mamelukesabre]

People still pee on it. Just because they know a bunch of uppity american tourists are gonna put their mouth on it.

[Ditter]

You have still not said that you know where the Blarney stone is located, don’t tell me Ireland. Have you been to Blarney castle?

[mamelukesabre]

It’s a wall with handrails attached. The locals get lickered up on the weekends and around 4 in the morning will go up to it and pee all over it and think its real funny. Young drunken punks are the same everywhere I guess. Back in college I had a drinking buddy from ireland that lived not too far from the place.

[Ditter]

It is a precarious climb and I can’t see a bunch of drunks making it up there in the dark. They would need a pretty strong stream to reach it. I am not worried anyway, it had rained all night before I kissed it.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Number two, behind the Blarney Stone? This gum wall is (possibly) germier than Barney Frank! Thanks Daffynition. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

The Black Stone in the Kaaba isn’t on this list? ;’)