Pubdate: Wed, 20 Apr 2005
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2005 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Lana Berkowitz
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POP CULTURE

Here's a hint: It doesn't refer to April 20

Today's buzzword: 420

Pronounced: Four-twenty

Definition: Time to get high

Use in a sentence: "420?" (Want to get high?)

"420." (I'm taking a break to get high.)

"420 at Harold's house." (We're getting high at Harold's house.)

This vocabulary lesson is for those who aren't going to a 420 party today 
and don't patronize the Houston 420 shops. And parents, you should know 
what those numbers mean if you see them on your kids' text messages.

"Four-twenty is stoner slang," said Steve Bloom, editor of High Times 
magazine. "It has caught on, but still, if you say to the average person 
'420,' they don't know what you're talking about. So it still has kind of 
an underground feel to it."

The term originated with California high-schoolers in the 1970s, according 
to the magazine, which has researched the term.

"It was a bunch of guys from San Rafael, Calif., who went by the name 
Waldo: Waldo Dave, Waldo Steve, and so on. They were just stoney students 
who after school would get together and get high. And they picked the time 
to be 4:20 even though they got out of school at 3:15."

It became part of stoner folklore that floated through the Grateful Dead 
scene in California and then spread throughout the country during the 1980s 
with the band's fans, Dead Heads.

Bloom picked up a 420 flier at an Oakland Grateful Dead show in 1990 and 
took it to the High Times office in New York. The magazine published the 
flier in 1991, and the whole thing took off from there.

Music festivals staged on April 20 are now part of the culture. High Times 
is hosting a show in New York and co-sponsoring smaller festivals around 
the country.

In Houston, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will 
have a 420 Fest at 7 tonight at Rock Starz Patio, 6203 Nyoka. At 4:20 p.m. 
Saturday, NORML will stage another music festival with eight bands at Last 
Concert Cafe, 1403 Nance. The guest speaker will be author Ed Rosenthal of 
Oakland, often called the "guru of ganja." Getting stoned at the concert is 
not encouraged, said Dean Becker of Houston's NORML.

What they do in the privacy of their own homes, well, that's their 
business, Becker said. But what happens at a place as liberal as High Times?

"We don't smoke in the office," said Bloom. "You can't smoke cigarettes or 
anything else in an office in New York."
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman