What's the deal with spitting?
 

Nothing sexual about the question. Straight old spitting in the street. Opening your car door at a red light to spit.

I've never been with a guy who openly spits. He may have done it discreetly when no one was around. But so many will spit anywhere, anytime. I see it way too often since I'm a public servant and the more I see it, the more gross it seems to me.

Are you a spitter? If so, why do you spit? If you don't, do you have to hold back? I've mostly seen men doing this, but on occasion, I've seen women doing it. Is it related to testosterone? Is it instinctual? Is it genetic or does it make you feel manly? Help me and other ladies who don't "get it" to understand.

Thank you. :D

I was a spitter... when I played little league. Think I was twelve. After that, not so much.

chewin' tobaccy...

I have sometimes have bad sinus drainage, especially in the mornings.

I don't always have something to spit into in the car, and swallowing it only makes it worse, so out the window it may go.

Its strictly biological.

Probably only playing football (or soccer to most of you)

edit:
Oh, and one time at school I spat in a guy's face after getting into a fight with him. I also once got sent off from a hockey (the kind you play on the grass, not the ice) for punching him out - even though he was on my team.

We didnt get on that well. Last I heard he was a police, up in Newcastle.

I guess, when you do it at someone else, its just like a very harsh sign of disrespect.

I remember a (different) kid in my maths class once spat onto his ruler, then flicked it 15 foot across the classroom at it hit my jumper. I was absolutely livid. There was a teacher there that broke the fight up - I asked him to leave the room for 5 minutes and I would take of it, but he refused... and I wound up failing the "teamwork" element of drama for the whole year cos the drama teacher walked in on me hitting the same kid over the head with a tea tray a few weeks later.

Ah, school days....

Thank you for bringing this up, jewels.

I have marveled at this over the years, wondering (with equal measures of horror and curiousity) why it is that some people accumulate so much spittle that they have to spit the excess out onto the street, sidewalk, etc. My own spittle production seems to be totally manageable.

I look forward to seeing the responses.

I spit regularly.

I live in a very dense, crowded, polluted, dirty city. Some days it is dirtier than others.

I spit from time to time because of the mucous build up. I try to be discreet. I try to spit into places you won't notice that I have spit. It bothers Skogafoss from time to time, and I have to try to be more diligent about being discreet.

As a heavy drinker I got good when throwing up, I could walk down the street, vomit into a planter and not slow down or miss a single step as I walked past. I even was able to do this when walking with friends. Most of the time no one noticed. Spitting is even easier.

I figured out that it was the dirtiness of the city because wehn I go to the cleaner countryside, I don't spit at all. Unless I have some allergies to some of the trees or animals there then it is equal to being in the city for me.

I blow my nose when I have too much mucus. If it's running down my throat so much it's accumulating, then I've not blown my nose enough. Under those types of situations, I usually drink something acidic (orange juice) or hot (tea).

Spitting strikes me as vulgar and usually innapropriate.

I occasionally spit when I'm running. I picked it up on the high school track team. Isn't that expected, though?

Perhaps men have more of a mucus problem? I notice a lot more men spitting/expunging mucus in unsightly ways than women... not trying to pick a fight here, but you've gotta admit that it's a little bit true. I've very rarely seen a woman hock a loogie (how is that spelled, exactly?).

That's the main reason I spit. Much better to spit that shit out then swallow it. YUCK to you non spitters.

Plus I played baseball for 15+ years. So sinuses, baseball, and the occational dip I have (THANKS BAD BASEBALL HABIT).

I only spit when I'm running, and then only because swallowing it makes me feel sick. If it's not the extra thick & stringy running-style saliva, I'll just swallow. I also make sure to spit in places where people won't run into it.

ah, the old spit vs swallow debate takes on a whole new meaning...

I'm like so jealous. :lol:

Bull.
I have the worst sinuses on the planet and I smoke. If there was a market for phlegm, I'd be stinkin rich.
You know you're gonna get cloggy, so keep tissues handy. Find a bathroom or sit in your car and hock up balls til you're blue.

Spitting is gross. Period. I shouldn't have to watch where I walk for phlegm balls.

So in other words, you'd be rollin in it?! http://planetsmilies.net/vomit-smiley-9529.gif

Thanks for saying that. :p I have horrific allergies certain times of the year, and I'm a smoker, too. I have a box of tissues at work, one in the car, and I'll keep a couple in my pocket (see, I didn't say purse ;) ) just in case. And I don't roll in my tissues, I throw them in a trash can.

You guys a far too uptight.

I'm not much of a spitter but I must admit that there are few things better than teetering on the border of being drunk and tipsy and emptying your bladder on a tree in the cool night air.

I guess you can call me gross or just chalk it up to the city I live in.

In Asia there is a lot of spitting going on, especially with the Chinese. This can take the form of a good long hoark followed but spit. It can also take the form of laying a finger aside one nostril and forcefully blowing the other out onto the street.

There are a lot of things that are different here that I just get used to. No big deal. But the whole obsession with getting a loogie of phlegm up and out, as a sign of good health, is just not one of them.

I used to be a big spitter. Not so much any more though, no real reason I stopped I just did.

I'm not a spitter. Never was.

Though I see the value of coughing up mucous from your lungs when you're sick (but into a tissue, for the love of god).

I generally don't get congested. I generally drink lots of water and I have a great immune system. I used to have allergies, but not so much anymore.

I did not understand the term snot rocket until I saw a chinese man blow his nose on the street with no benefit of kerchief or keleenex.

I remember seeing an old chinese man do this in Toronto, when I was a kid. I remember thinking it was gross then.

Now is see (and hear it) almost daily.

(shudder)

Yes I spit, and prob. too much. It is more of a habit than anything. Of course there are the mucus spits, but it's like every time I get out of the car I spit on the ground, then after I walk out of a building. I was a former chewer of leafy tobaccy, but don't think that has too much to do with it now.

If I have phlegm in my throat? It's coming out. I never spit out the window (I'm not coordinated enough!) but if I'm alone on the sidewalk, yes, I'll spit in the grass. Better than swallowing.. at home, it gets aborted into the sink.

I find spitting as a result of using chewing tobacco pretty disgusting.. I went to a very rural high school, so a LOT of the guys "dipped." They'd spit into pop bottles on the bus or at FFA events.. UGH.

I'm a spitter in the winter. I have sinus problems, always have had them, always will have them. Major post-nasal drip thing going on. If I swallow it, it upsets my delicate stomach, and I vomit. Spitting is much more pleasant than throwing up.

I'm a big spitter. I spit openly and could care less what anybody else thinks about it. If I have saliva in my mouth it's going out. If I have mucus in my sinuses it's going out. If I have snot clogging my nose it's going out. As long as I don't hit you with it, I don't see it as inappropriate.

I think its gross for the most part. Only time I spit is when I am running or jogging, biking, hiking.. that kinda stuff. My spit gets really thick and I give it a rinse with water and spit it out. Other than that, pretty much never, I try to not spit in the streets as I think its just nasty. It pisses me off to no end when I see people spitting on pub floors.

I guess we don't have to worry about TB so much anymore.

When I was a teenager... seems like a lot of my peers sat on their front steps and made pools of saliva for fun.

The most disgusting thing about my youth, really.

Damn you, camel-people.

My first instinct when I saw this topic was to grab a pouch of Red Man gold and put on a DISPLAY...

But other than that, I only spit when I cough up an unplanned gigantic lung biscuit, and I try to be reasonably discreet about it.

When I'm chewin', I watch where I spit, too - always in the dirt or somewhere it won't wind up getting on someone later. Unless I'm indoors, when I use an empty Gatorade bottle. This is socially acceptable around other Marines; mixed company not so much.

Also, when driving & chewin', ALWAYS the bottle. I like my paint job, thanks.

x2. When running, there's only 3 options...

A) Swallow it. That means a missed breath or two then trying to "catch" back up.

B) Let it run down your chin and look like a drooling idiot to those you pass by.

C) Spit it out on an exhale without missing a stride.

C is the most reasonable option given the circumstance. In normal situations, I don't spit at all. Just no reason to unless I've just coughed up a big chunk of lung butter.

here in the USA...

traditional designs..still exist..

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...gy/bandana.jpg

or....

http://www.wholesaleforeveryone.com/page/WFE/CTGY/banpp

Thank goodness for cholos!

Cowboy up!

ahemmm..forgive my pixelatedness..

Spitting is icky where I hail from..for what it's worth..
see..I can stay on topic a bit.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...lflady_002.jpg

If I have to spit, I try to do it somewhere other than where people will be walking, i.e in the grass, a bush, etc. Where I am in PA, people spit, women included, like it's going out of style. Granted, a ton of them chew tobacco as well, but I never found the need to hork a huge one in front of everyone else.

I don't understand why men have to spit so much, and it is thoroughly disgusting. It pisses me off to no end when I see spit on sidewalks and such.

I just spit at reading that, but it was involuntary, I swear :D

lung butter

I never was a spitter, I always thought it was something of a "redneck" attribute.

5 o'clock shadow, country music, hat branded with his favorite beer or power tool, and his spitting habit.

yee haw.


no thanks.


I had the unfortunate displeasure of standing in line at dick's (a burger stand up here) and the guy in the line in front of me just decided to spit right there on the concrete.

I find the habit disgusting, especially if I'm going to or am currently eating.

I wound up just leaving cuz it was super busy anyway but, gross, seriously, don't fucking spit on the sidewalk where people are lined up for FOOD

a lot of guys spit into the urinal when they're peeing. i have no idea why.

also, throwing your cigarette butt on the ground is 100x more disgusting than spitting