da cycling cul-cha
When I moved out of Noe Valley, I swore I would go out of my way to go to Noe Valley Cyclery for my bicycling needs, because it is simply *the* best cyclery in the City. But I got a flat just two blocks from a popular, hip cyclery on Valencia, so practicality dictated that I go there.

I roll my bike into this cyclery on Valencia and ask for an inner tube, the guy behind the counter goes, "what size?", and I'm standing there looking stoopit because I don't know off the top of my head what size inner tube my bike takes (and if I did, I wouldn't have rolled my bike into the bleeding shop!). So I have to find the imprint on the tire of the size, and he's standing at a distance not even looking for the imprint, and then finally goes, "oh", and gets me the tube. This is opposed to NV Cyclery, where I could walk in and ask for an inner tube, and anyone there would be able to eyeball my bike, turn around and pick the appropriate tube off the shelf.

The rules of the young and stupid:
To be cool and hip, you must be somewhere in the "attitude equation". That is, you must be giving it or receiving it. It doesn't matter which. I was cool and hip being in this cyclery on Valencia, having "attitude" dished out at me. People go to this cyclery on Valencia to have these lame-o's dish out attitude, because that automatically makes you cool and hip.