* "Seattle is incredibly friendly and polite" My ten-year residence in Seattle (U District, Lake City, and Burien/Tukwila) led me to use terms like "passive-ag

* "Seattle is incredibly friendly and polite" My ten-year residence in Seattle (U District, Lake City, and Burien/Tukwila) led me to use terms like "passive-aggressive", "frigid", and "unaware". Seattle drivers are particularly terrible -- they'll force a line of 20 cars to stop just so they can "politely" let someone in who would have been able to turn just fine ten seconds later when all the cars had passed; they're perfectly willing to inconvenience multiple other people in order to be superficially polite to one. If there's a space in front of them, they'll speed up, getting right on the bumper of the car in front of them -- even if there's plenty of room to pass -- and then follow closely, as if they just can't stand being more than a few yards behind the next car. (This particular passive-aggressive maneuver is so distinctive that I once identified a vehicle on the interstate in Kansas as "drives like they're from Seattle" from a distance, confirming from the licence plate when I got closer.) I also noticed that everyone in Seattle was polite to my face, but the majority of long-term friends I made while in Seattle were from other places. The people who turned out to be fake friends were mostly the natives. That's not to say that Seattle entirely sucks. It was a neat place to live, and there are a lot of good people there. But I find it interesting how differently we perceive the same social scene, and how that contributes to my being much happier far away from there.