Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 2)

Yes, in my experience (from several decades ago), “toke” is correct (“puff” sounds stupid), “bogart” is correct (never heard “babysit”) and there was no rule for what direction to pass. What if the person who lights up is sitting on the left end of the couch?

“Puff” invokes more of the idea of pulling a bit of smoke into your mouth and using it to, say, make smoke rings, rather than the classic weed smoking method that gives rise to the passing comment “'ere”.

Yes, my joint ettiquette agrees with you all. Never heard “babysit the joint” in all my toking years.

Plus, if you are sitting in anything resembling a circle, passing to your left means clockwise, not anti-clockwise.

That cite is shite.

Oh good.
Not just me then !

Only if you’re looking down on the circle from above. If you’re lying on the floor looking up, it’s counterclockwise. (Which position you’re more likely to be in depends of course on how many hits you’ve had.)

Wow. Passing to the left is the way it was always done in my neck of the woods. Another rule was that whoever supplied the weed got “greens” (the first hit on the pipe/bong/joint).

Interesting. It usually worked that way, because the person supplying the weed was usually the person who rolled the joint, lit it, and took the first hit; but I never heard it called “greens”, or specifically referred to. It seemed to be more a matter of, the person supplying the weed had it in their hands, and it was more natural for them to proceed from there than to hand it to somebody else to do the rest of it, or part of the rest of it. Though I think that if it was somebody else who had the pipe or the papers sometimes the person with weed would hand it to them; sometimes the other way around.

ETA: @kayaker, what year(s) are you talking about? I wonder whether more ritual maybe built up over time. There’s the whole 4/20 business, for instance, which I never heard of in the 70’s, and I gather is traced to some particular group some years later.

I’ve been a cannabis user from ~1974 to today. As far as someone getting greens, typically a group of people are hanging out and Jim pulls a baggie out of his pocket. Mike has a pipe in his pocket, so Jim passes the baggie over and Mike packs the pipe. Mike should hand the bowl over for Jim to take the first hit.

“Ash before you pass” is another common sense courtesy.

If we did that, I don’t remember it.

My friends were all into the rules of weed.

Mine were mostly into ‘we don’ want no stupid rules.’

The first rule of weed is you don’t talk about weed.

Another “rule” was to offer to smoke a bowl with your dealer.

You had to stay at your dealer’s place long enough that it seemed like a social call (so the neighbors wouldn’t get suspicious and call the cops) but not so long that it got awkward. Your relationship with your dealer was a tricky one; you weren’t friends, exactly, but it wasn’t quite a business relationship. Running into your dealer at a party, for instance, was a little like running into your therapist.

As for passing the joint, well, there was only one rule:

Don’t bogart that joint, my friend.

That’s the only rule I remember as well.

For our unspeakably skilled but unable to comply pianist, I, like a lot of posters selected other.

I won’t give them first place, although their skills have earned it, because everyone else is apparently competing with regards to the rules. I will (hopefully with the agreement of any other judges if any) award First place to the next best pianist, but will announce that as part of the award, that I felt the most deserving performance was the non-compliant individual.

So public recognition, but preserving the rules of the event (Lawful Neutral, don’t ya know).

If the event includes some version of “honorable” mention, I’ll include that as well, because I’d like to offer a formal award, even if it isn’t up to the level of the performance.

Honestly, events like that feel very classicist to me anyway, as it’s hard enough to get to that skill level if you don’t come from a wealthy background, and the performance dress is similarly just adding salt to the wound when it comes to costs. So, I’d also discuss those rules for events going forward.

Where do I draw a final line years down the road? I don’t know, because I suspect that we’d get into the weeds with sponsor and endowment monies and interests, but that’s another discussion.

Dress codes are dumb, in any setting. I would forgo enforcing that particular rule and judge each pianist’s performance regardless of their attire. If the contest’s organizers don’t like it, they can fire me. But I’m thinking that would be a PR disaster for them if they did so after the fact.

Unless there is a specific safety reason for particular attire, the dress code can get stuffed. The whacko gets the win, and the organization can fire me if they wish.

I’ve heard of orchestras auditioning potential new members behind a screen. Interestingly, one result was considerably more women being hired. But I think a prize should be awarded on performing the best; not on who looked the best.