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Ewww! Seattle gum wall a top germy attraction
KomoNews.com ^ | Jun 13, 2009 | KOMO Staff

Posted on 06/14/2009 5:40:52 AM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Local News; Outdoors; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
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To: JoeProBono
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.

21 posted on 06/14/2009 6:44:28 AM PDT by Daffynition ("If any of you die, can I please have your ammo?" ~ Gator113)
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To: Daffynition

22 posted on 06/14/2009 6:48:24 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Daffynition

That is freakin’ disgusting. Seattle should be ashamed.


23 posted on 06/14/2009 6:50:07 AM PDT by LiberConservative
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To: Daffynition

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


24 posted on 06/14/2009 6:50:21 AM PDT by Daffynition ("If any of you die, can I please have your ammo?" ~ Gator113)
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To: Daffynition

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


25 posted on 06/14/2009 6:51:26 AM PDT by radiohead (Buy ammo, get your kids out of government schools, pray for the Republic.)
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To: jla

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)


26 posted on 06/14/2009 6:53:41 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: radiohead
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.


27 posted on 06/14/2009 6:55:52 AM PDT by Daffynition ("If any of you die, can I please have your ammo?" ~ Gator113)
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To: JoeProBono

28 posted on 06/14/2009 7:00:46 AM PDT by Daffynition ("If any of you die, can I please have your ammo?" ~ Gator113)
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To: Ditter
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?

29 posted on 06/14/2009 7:02:44 AM PDT by jla
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To: Daffynition
Seattle's Weird Pigs


30 posted on 06/14/2009 7:06:01 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: jla

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?


31 posted on 06/14/2009 7:07:57 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter

because people like me pee on it.


32 posted on 06/14/2009 7:17:23 AM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: mamelukesabre

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.


33 posted on 06/14/2009 7:34:41 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Daffynition

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


34 posted on 06/14/2009 8:14:48 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Ditter

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


35 posted on 06/14/2009 8:20:29 AM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: mamelukesabre

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?


36 posted on 06/14/2009 10:36:54 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter

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.


37 posted on 06/14/2009 10:59:19 AM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: mamelukesabre

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.


38 posted on 06/14/2009 11:20:59 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Daffynition; ValerieTexas

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
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
 

·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google ·
· The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


39 posted on 06/14/2009 7:42:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: Fred Nerks; Berosus

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


40 posted on 06/14/2009 7:43:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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