Whatever.
The term for indifference or exasperation, often muttered with “Yeah, well” before it, has gone local.
Whateverett.
What’s up with that?
Jillian Ingram, 38, is the force behind the “Whateverett” T-shirts you might have seen around town.
Inspiration hit several years ago when she was living in an apartment in downtown Everett.
“Every night when the bars would let out, there would be drunk people sitting around the planters right outside my window,” she said. “One night, I’m coming home, and there’s this sailor in uniform, and he was peeing on my building. And I was like, ‘Dude, I’m like right here.’ And he kind of looked at me and he just kept peeing. I was about 3 feet away at most. I was like, ‘Whatever, it’s Everett. Whateverett. Ha ha.’”
Ingram, a poet, said when she told that story to her friends at poetry readings, “It kind of took off. The whole ‘whateverett’ thing became common.”
She printed a batch of “Whateverett” T-shirts, which has “Everett Poets” on the back.
“It’s almost like our team T-shirt in a way,” she said.
It gets noticed outside of poetry circles.
“A lot of people stare at first, then there’s this moment when they get it, and they laugh and go, ‘Oh, my God, that’s great. Where did you get that?’”
The shirt is available for $20 at Black Lab Gallery, 1618 Hewitt Ave., a few blocks from the site where the sailor started it all.
Ingram plans to make more “Whateverett” shirts and maybe even do something more with the term.
“My husband said I should trademark it,” she said.
Longtime fans of Everett rock band Moondoggies might remember the saying from the “What Everett” music posters made a decade ago by the lead singer’s sister. Though the band never used it in lyrics, it often uses #whateverett in its tweets.
I Googled “Whateverett.”
There’s a Twitter handle WhatEverett by a dude who lives in Canada with 78 followers and more than 1,973 tweets such as this: “A very flamboyant man in Costco wearing a lei around his neck stopped mid walk and whipped around to tell me he loves my banana shirt.”
I found a blog named “The Whateverett” that was started by a couple with the last name Everett who promised “an occasional family update, pictures of the cutest baby around, Dawg stuff, and lots of otherwise useless info. In other words a bunch of ‘whatever-ett.’”
It had this disclaimer: “If you’re looking for Pulitzer-quality journalism, you’re probably in the wrong place.”
That was in 2008. There hasn’t been another post since.
A blog called “It’s Whateverett” is by a guy named Everett who describes himself as “an aspiring person from a little town in upstate New York traveling around the country, visiting friends, going wherever the wind takes me and many other cliches.”
He wrote: “Stay tuned and watch out, I might be coming to your neck of the woods soon!”
He hasn’t yet made it to Everett, Washington.
I found a lot of “WhatEverest” items.
Yeah, well. Whateverest.
There are other Everett-centric T-shirts in town.
Henry Yarsinske Jr., bass player for local band Oliver Elf Army, had 40 “Everett vs Everybody” shirts made. It’s a take on the Ohio Against the World brand that gained exposure when Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James sported a branded hat in an Instagram post.
“I feel that in the arts community in Everett, we all have to work a little bit harder to get noticed in the shadow of Seattle, and I wanted something to reflect that extra drive we have here,” he said.
The Live in Everett website folks, Garret Hunt and Tyler Chism, created a “Good things happen here” T-shirt with about 20 Everett-centric icons, such as the 20-foot muffler man statue atop a building on Hewitt, Barney’s killer pastrami sandwich and Jetty Island.
“It is to celebrate the things that are authentic to Everett, to get people to talk about Everett in a positive way, and to inspire Everett pride,” Chism said.
Another shirt available at www.LiveinEverett.com simply reads “Everett” with a heart in place of the “V.”
As for Ingram, she has since moved to Marysville.
Has she thought of a saying for Marysville?
“I should,” she said.
Got ideas?
Let me know.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
Lynnwood has a new T-shirt hot off the shirt press.
It sports the winning design by Allan C. Carandang in a recent contest sponsored by the city to celebrate what people love about Lynnwood.
In his design, the “NW” in the middle of “Lynnwood” is incorporated in a graphic with evergreen trees on both sides to highlight “Pacific NW Washington.”
Carandang, 42, moved from Seattle to Lynnwood several years ago and is a concept designer at Dillon Works in Mukilteo. Outside of work, he’s a watercolor and encaustic artist who mixes coffee into his paintings. For real. Beans, brew, grounds and even the burnt stuff at the bottom of the pot.
“I take my coffee that I don’t finish drinking and that residue,” he said. He applies it to canvas and the result is stunning.
He exhibits his coffee art at galleries and events, such as this weekend’s Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival.
The Lynnwood shirt logo was designed with a computer, not coffee. But it was fueled by coffee. Carandang waited until the day before the contest deadline to do it.
“I kept looking at the word Lynnwood and I saw northwest (NW) was right smack dab in the middle. It worked perfectly for the design,” he said. “The reflection of the trees is what you see in the rain.”
The prize was $500.
The shirts, $10, are available at Lynnwood Rec Center, 18900 44th Ave. W., and will also be for sale at Lynnwood’s Fair on 44th community block party on Sept. 9. More at www.lynnwoodwa.gov.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
Gallery
