CANTON WOMAN ANGRY ABOUT PIZZA PARLOR SIGN

Rachel Travers (right) demands Your Pizza Shop manager Jeff Amsden remove
the advertisement of the shop's pizza special from the sign outside the
business on 12th Street NW at Cleveland Avenue. The sign announces the
business' "420 special." The number has been used as code among marijuana
smokers to light up. Travers told Amsden that if he doesn't remove the
sign, she will. Amsden told her that if she removes the sign, he will call
police and press charges.

Hey, Mom and Dad. Ever wonder what your kids and their friends are talking
about when you overhear them discussing "420?"

Patrons of a local pizza shop evidently know what the code name means:
marijuana. The High Times magazine Web site notes that 420 was first used
in 1971 by a group of San Rafael, Calif., students who would meet after
school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke pot.

Others say the term may have developed from police radio codes or even from
a rock band's lyrics.

The term is popular with the marijuana-smoking subculture.

Your Pizza Shop at 420 12th St. NW is advertising a "420 special" for
anyone with the "munchies," another reference familiar to pot smokers.

"We know that it makes reference to it, but it's also a marketing niche. A
lot of people come in and get a good laugh out of it," said Adam
Charlikowskyi, manager.

Jeff Amsden, another manager, said, "We do get a lot of orders on that
sign" because of what it says.

Rachel Travers, who lives a few blocks away, doesn't appreciate their sense
of humor.

"This is making me sick to my stomach," she said Thursday. "Most crimes are
committed while under the influence of a drug or alcohol. (This
advertising) is like saying, `Sure. Drive down my street while you're doped
up, come get your pizza and then come rob my house.' Because that's
basically what it says. It just disgusts me."

Since early summer, the business has been using the code number advertising
daily specials, such as Munchie Monday, Toasted Tuesday and Green Leaf
Wednesday. Amsden said customers ask for those specials by name -- and
usually with a giggle.

"This (campaign) took off pretty good once we started putting the fliers
around," said employee Mick Rosteen. Some fliers advertising the "420 Daily
Specials, When you have the urge to munch ..." also were taped to pizza boxes.

Charlikowskyi said the advertising is aimed at attracting "a younger
crowd," pointing out that the neighborhood is primarily comprised of
younger adults.

"I'm 22 and I have no interest in this whatsoever," Travers countered.

A Malvern native, she moved into the neighborhood about two weeks ago as a
renter, and had been considering buying a home there.

"It's a nice neighborhood," she said. "The houses are well taken care of.
So far, all of my neighbors have been extremely friendly. It's clean.
Nobody has trash in their yard. There are no junk cars, and nobody has dogs
chained up in the back yard. The businesses are well-established.

"But this (sign) does not represent the neighborhood well at all. I don't
want to be known as the girl who lives down the street from the pot-smoking
pizza shop."

The managers said Travers has been the only one to complain.

When the three met with a Repository reporter and photographer at the sign
Thursday afternoon, Travers started a heated discussion with the men,
demanding to know, "Why do you have to market to lowlife like this?"

Amsden replied, "It brings the neighborhood in."

The two traded educational background information, and while Travers
demanded they remove the sign, Amsden defended it, saying it was a "freedom
of speech" issue.

Travers threatened to return later and remove the letters herself. Amsden
informed her that he would call the police and file criminal charges.

"It's not ethical, it's not right and I'm not going to stand for it,"
Travers said.

SIGN OF CONTENTION. Rachel Travers (right) lives a few blocks from this
pizza shop and doesn't appreciate the business' sense of humor when it
comes to advertising. Managers Jeff Amsden (center) and Adam Charlikowskyi
say the sign, which highlights a marijuana subculture code for smoking the
illegal weed, has improved business.