What the hill was I thinking?

Forgive me, Hillers, for I have sinned.

Grievously so, it seems. I confess I have no idea why I did it. I didn't mean to! Apparently it goes to an uncorrectable defect at my being's core. Namely, that I'm not from here.

It all began last Saturday night. A column I wrote with the intent of praising a local boy, fired U.S. Attorney John McKay, was posted on our Web site. A few quiet hours passed deceptively by.

Then, at 12:54 a.m., the barrage started. It hasn't let up much since.

"You have no idea how badly you slandered Johnny," wrote reader Larry Newman.

His was the first of more than 200 calls and e-mails, all pointing out an error. A boneheaded mistake. Still, it was a slip-up of a type we usually correct on page A2, and which many readers never notice.

This error was different. It exposed a seething, intra-city rivalry I had no idea existed.

John McKay was raised with his 11 brothers and sisters at 22nd and Prospect, in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. But I wrote that he grew up in — I cringe to type the words a second time — Queen Anne!

"Danny, there is no way a class act such as Johnny McKay grew up on Queen Anne," wrote B.J. Robel.

"McKay is no Queen Anne punk," phoned an unnamed caller. "He's a Hiller, through and through."

"Us Capitol Hill folks take offense to any mention of Queen Anne Hill," wrote John Terry.

Who knew? I got here in the summer of '85. I have lived stints on Capitol Hill and Queen Anne. I was oblivious that the hilltop 'hoods were glaring vaingloriously at one another across Lake Union.

It's as if I called a Hatfield a McCoy. A Shark a Jet. A Crip a Blood.

"To deny a ... true Hiller his proper accolades is the highest form of insult," wrote Michael Talevich. "You obviously weren't born here and probably came in with one or the other waves of yuppies that has landed."

So true. That guy lives a few blocks from me, in Madrona. He signed off: "Reluctantly, your neighbor."

McKay wrote to say his being linked to the words "Queen Anne" has destroyed his "street cred." He was joking. I think.

Let's stipulate for the purpose of seeking understanding that Queen Anne can be annoying. Especially that precious Thriftway/Metropolitan Market cult they have up there.

Even so, what can explain the passion of the Hillers?

Tom Nickels says it's a Catholic thing. He's the mayor's brother. They grew up a block from the McKays in the '60s and '70s, when Capitol Hill was known as "Catholic Hill."

There was a rivalry between St. Joe's school on Capitol Hill and St. Anne's on Queen Anne. But mostly there was a sense Capitol Hill was unique.

"I would describe it as feral," he said. "The families were huge, with kids roaming free. We'd have 40, 50 kids in the street for capture the flag.

"All those calls you got is people longing for that. We're proud of it. There's nothing like it in Seattle anymore."

Today we're citizens of the world. We go to different schools, commute to disparate towns. Life isn't supposed to be so local, so tribal anymore.

Sure seems like we miss it.

Reach Danny Westneat at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.