Why Don’t People Smile as Much in Our Nation’s Capital?
The three things I have most noticed about DC since returning for only the third time since I lived here in the 1990s is how few people smile (compared to LA), how many more smokers there are and how oppressive is the humidity.
Perhaps, oppressive is a bit harsh, but it does take some getting used to when you’re walking around downtown, especially when wearing a jacket and tie and toting a laptop.
It is weird to be back, a stranger in a city which was once my home. I remain familiar with many of the places I pass, but they all seem different in some way. Not to mention the new construction.
The oddest thing though is how easily I have been able to navigate the city’s streets. I quickly remembered how things fit together. When driving in, I didn’t need look at a map to find my way from I-95 South to central Arlington.
Why is it, I wonder, that people don’t smile as much as they do in LA. Is it just the weather? Was it like this when I last lived here (in the Clinton era)? Or does everyone now take themselves far more seriously now that a new man’s in charge.
9 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I’ve found that not many people north of the Mason-Dixon smile much at all. There must be a correlation between that and driving 40 MPH on the interstate with the left turn signal on.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 27, 2010 @ 5:28 pm - May 27, 2010
I think perhaps they know how dreadful the president is and see no way out
Comment by PatriotMom — May 27, 2010 @ 5:48 pm - May 27, 2010
Yeah but Californians still don’t smile as much as Southerners.
Whenever I arrive back in L.A. after an extended trip home to N.C., I notice people here rarely smile and say “good morning” to one another.
Most of the time, they’re too busy either typing or yelling into a cell phone.
Give any kind of salutation to an Angeleno and they’ll usually look at you like, “why the f__k are you talking to me?”
Comment by The Ugly American — May 27, 2010 @ 5:53 pm - May 27, 2010
government towns are never happy places. The bureaucracy drains out the soul. Last time I was in DC was 6 years ago, after spending 10 days in Maine, New Hampshire and Boston we ended up in DC. Just watching the people- they were all dull, dressed in Khaki and uninspiring. Even on Dupont Circle, the hip part of town.
Unlike the gal I saw in downtown LA this weekend with a poodle she had dyed pink.
Comment by Leah — May 27, 2010 @ 7:01 pm - May 27, 2010
It is the Capital of Mediocrity.
Comment by GayPatriot — May 27, 2010 @ 9:35 pm - May 27, 2010
It’s the commute. It’s draining and it sucks out your soul. I had enough of it after 4 years there. I don’t know how my father has done it for 30+.
Comment by Neptune — May 27, 2010 @ 10:26 pm - May 27, 2010
Then I’d be perfect for washington!
(my second wife got my soul in the divorce)
Comment by The_Livewire — May 28, 2010 @ 6:41 am - May 28, 2010
Neptune is right. If I couldn’t telecommute twice a week, I’d have quit my job years ago.
Comment by V the K — May 28, 2010 @ 8:04 am - May 28, 2010
Jefferson and company picked the location for the capital precisely because the weather was so bad. It’s humid and swampy and Jefferson hoped, in vain it would turn out, that the weather would be so horrid in the summer that it would encourage everyone to go home and preclude a year round legislature. (The deal was made with Alexander Hamilton in exchange for Jefferson agreeing to support federal funds to pay for repairing damage in northern cities during the Revolutionary War. PS the meeting happened on Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan. The house where Jefferson lived was torn down long ago but the street is still there.)
Comment by Houndentenor — May 28, 2010 @ 6:42 pm - May 28, 2010