POP CULTURE

Here's a hint: It doesn't refer to April 20

Today's buzzword: 420

Pronounced: Four-twenty

Definition: Time to get high

Use in a sentence: "420?" (Want to get high?)

"420." (I'm taking a break to get high.)

"420 at Harold's house." (We're getting high at Harold's house.)

This vocabulary lesson is for those who aren't going to a 420 party today
and don't patronize the Houston 420 shops. And parents, you should know
what those numbers mean if you see them on your kids' text messages.

"Four-twenty is stoner slang," said Steve Bloom, editor of High Times
magazine. "It has caught on, but still, if you say to the average person
'420,' they don't know what you're talking about. So it still has kind of
an underground feel to it."

The term originated with California high-schoolers in the 1970s, according
to the magazine, which has researched the term.

"It was a bunch of guys from San Rafael, Calif., who went by the name
Waldo: Waldo Dave, Waldo Steve, and so on. They were just stoney students
who after school would get together and get high. And they picked the time
to be 4:20 even though they got out of school at 3:15."

It became part of stoner folklore that floated through the Grateful Dead
scene in California and then spread throughout the country during the 1980s
with the band's fans, Dead Heads.

Bloom picked up a 420 flier at an Oakland Grateful Dead show in 1990 and
took it to the High Times office in New York. The magazine published the
flier in 1991, and the whole thing took off from there.

Music festivals staged on April 20 are now part of the culture. High Times
is hosting a show in New York and co-sponsoring smaller festivals around
the country.

In Houston, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will
have a 420 Fest at 7 tonight at Rock Starz Patio, 6203 Nyoka. At 4:20 p.m.
Saturday, NORML will stage another music festival with eight bands at Last
Concert Cafe, 1403 Nance. The guest speaker will be author Ed Rosenthal of
Oakland, often called the "guru of ganja." Getting stoned at the concert is
not encouraged, said Dean Becker of Houston's NORML.

What they do in the privacy of their own homes, well, that's their
business, Becker said. But what happens at a place as liberal as High Times?

"We don't smoke in the office," said Bloom. "You can't smoke cigarettes or
anything else in an office in New York."