420 12th NW Pizza Shop Signs Off on ‘420 Special’

[superjoint]

By Lori Monsewicz, Repository Staff Writer
Source: Canton Repository

Canton — The sign at 420 12th St. NW has changed.
Your Pizza Shop owner Pat Koury removed the letters and numbers advertising his shop’s “420 fried special” at the request of the company president and a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer.

He left the sign at the corner of 12th Street and Cleveland Avenue NW blank.

Rachel Travers couldn’t be happier.

She said if the specials also aren’t dropped, “I can take this to a whole new level.” The specials are advertised as Munchie Monday, Toasted Tuesday and Green Leaf Wednesday.

The young woman who moved into the neighborhood two weeks ago vehemently opposed the sign, noting that 420 is a popular subcultural reference to smoking marijuana.

She demanded the managers remove it.

The managers, who said the advertising campaign had been a beneficial source of entertainment for nearly six months, refused.

Even Police Department vice officers initially were not aware that “420” was a reference to smoking marijuana. The term is popular with marijuana smokers, having evolved from a group of California students who were fans of the Grateful Dead. The students apparently coined the term after meeting daily after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke pot. The term also may have developed from police radio codes or a rock band’s lyrics.

When Dave Newstetter, president of the Massillon-based Your Pizza Shop Corp., learned of the sign, he insisted Koury remove it.

Koury said a Canton police officer with the city’s inactive DARE program also asked him to remove the sign.

Koury complied.

Climbed the ladder.

Removed the letters.

Minutes before he and manager Jeff Amsden removed the sign, passing motorists honked their horns and gave them the thumbs-up sign.

But Koury still felt he had to remove the letters.

“What happened to the First Amendment?” he asked reporters who watched him. A television reporter had called City Councilwoman Kathleen Altieri Bucher, D-2, who also watched.

“(Travers) has made this a one-woman war on us for her interpretation of what the sign says; 420 also happens to be our address,” Koury said. “Does she want us to change our address?”

The pizza shop is at 420 12th St. NW.

Altieri Bucher said she hadn’t even noticed the sign.

“I don’t care about the specials,” she said. “I don’t have time to look at the signs. When I’m at this intersection, I’m too afraid of getting hit to look at the sign. I’ve patronized this restaurant for many years.”

She called Koury a “good businessman” who has been in the neighborhood for a long time. She commended his concern for community sentiment on the sign about which only one person has complained.

Koury said the specials would remain in place, however.

But Newstetter has other plans.

“I don’t want anything that has any connotations that are improper — sexual, alcohol or drugs,” Newstetter said. He said the shop is a local franchise and the company “in no way authorized” the advertising.

But, Newstetter admitted, “Even if I would have driven by, I wouldn’t have even known what (420) meant.”

Newshawk: CorvallisEric
Source: Repository, The
Author: Lori Monsewicz, Repository Writer
Published: Saturday, November 16, 2002
Copyright: 2002 The Repository
Contact: letters@cantonrep.com
Website: http://www.cantonrep.com/

Related Article:

Canton Woman Angry About Pizza Parlor Sign
http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2105/a10.html

[MrsDingusus]

talk about the neighborhood party pooper.....

[D9_THC]

This is one of those people who have nothing better to do than complain.

People like that don't deserve their brains.

[sidious]

Yeah they should be taken outside and shot.....Peace out...Sid

[IndianaToker]

Originally posted by D9_THC
This is one of those people who have nothing better to do than complain.

Exactly right! I can't stand people who just live to bitch about stupid shit. Life's too short people, get over it!