The Subtle art of ‘Sabs’ing
And Its Most Optimal Locations
Our Divine Providence — by @Katzmansketches
I was first introduced to the term ‘SABS’ by my quite bizarre cousin who goes to Penn.
Allow me:
TO SABS: ‘To See and Be Seen’
Or as Marriam Webster includes: (by important or fashionable people.)
USE IN A SENTENCE:
Hey Joey, wanna go SABS on the main green?
Have you seen Joey? Oh yeah he’s been SABSing on the porch all day.
You free today? No sorry have to SABS.
A naive Freshman then, I assumed this was an original Penn-esque pretentious idiom that ought to be scoffed at. We chill enlightened folk at Brown would never. How embarrassing to care that much about social perception…
‘SABS’ING now dictates my life.
Before I knew it, what I once insisted was a phrase I was using strictly ironically, began to infiltrate my everyday vocabulary and eventually my fundamental compass of desires…
The want to SABS consumes me. I wake up and feel a calling to the steps of the main green. I go sleep wondering who I might see there?
PURPOSES OF THE SABS ART:
To investigate who’s about.
To establish that you are about.
KEY PURPOSE: Bump into that person you aren’t brave enough to plan to see, but with whom you would finesse a happenstance ‘hi.’
Eg. “I can’t invite him to my party yet. That’d be weird. I need to bump into him on the main green first.”
TO SABS is not just SEE, but to orchestrate vital social research.
It is not just to BE SEEN, but to offer yourself up for serendipitous, haphazard interactions.
A SABS SPOT GUIDE: usually involves a plot of grass.
Those Tables on Top of Main Green Steps. For a more public display.
Under a Quiet Green Tree. For a more romantic exhibit.
Corner Chair by Window of 2nd Floor Blue Room. Offers prime view of both those on the green and those coming to work inside.
Sat in Ratty all day. Who really comes to a dining hall to ‘get work done?’
That Green with the Horse on it? (Actually not that great of a SABS spot — it seems to be a place to walk through not to — but still a good observation location for more passive stalk.)
Honorable mentions: Ceremony; those chairs (and kitchen?) at the entrance of the gym; and apparently the café area in Barus&Holley, but I wouldn’t know as my English major self never sets foot there.
So honestly to SABS is to foster the community. It’s a gift to campus, really. Thus while we still have the sun and the excuse to go lounge about in it all day, I encourage you to all to take a prop of some sort (a drink, or a book perhaps) and go plop yourself in a public space. You never know who may stumble upon you….
And you will look ever so nonchalant.
Cheers,
— Miss R. Sélavy