Bucky wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:the guy at Cottman and the Boulevard bought a car for his daughter. she went to high school with my high school friends. i mean really

so you're saying you went to high school with her i think

i guess i phrased that poorly. i was friends with them when i was in high school. we went to different (all boys/all girls) high schools.

The Dude wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:Speaking of panhandling--I think the best way to go is to look semi-respectable, and make up some story about how your wallet was stolen and you need $5 or $10 for train or bus fare to get home. I think asking for a specific amount is the way to go.

i've seen those guys get yelled at. i think looking as pitiful as possible is the best way. i'm half way there

This has the makings of an episode of Sunny in Philly.

There's a guy in Abington named Slobber Bob, just walks all over Abington getting money, then walks down the shore and lives off it for the summer. I used to see him year round

The Dude wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:Speaking of panhandling--I think the best way to go is to look semi-respectable, and make up some story about how your wallet was stolen and you need $5 or $10 for train or bus fare to get home. I think asking for a specific amount is the way to go.

i've seen those guys get yelled at. i think looking as pitiful as possible is the best way. i'm half way there

The guy who does that is a certified scammer and you're a moron if you fall for it. I'm a moron.

yah, i used to see the same dude do this all the time. you gotta remember people's faces if that's the story

TenuredVulture wrote:Speaking of panhandling--I think the best way to go is to look semi-respectable, and make up some story about how your wallet was stolen and you need $5 or $10 for train or bus fare to get home. I think asking for a specific amount is the way to go. This way, people won't stick you with $#@! convenience store sandwiches or other junk.

those guys are more unbelievable and deserve our scorn.

The Dude wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:Speaking of panhandling--I think the best way to go is to look semi-respectable, and make up some story about how your wallet was stolen and you need $5 or $10 for train or bus fare to get home. I think asking for a specific amount is the way to go.

i've seen those guys get yelled at. i think looking as pitiful as possible is the best way. i'm half way there

there's a guy i've heard about who wears a full suit and tells this story about how he blew out his tire and doesn't have a spare--says he's got 82 bucks and needs 90 for a new tire (or something like that, figures aren't important). so he's basically asking for 8 bucks but in a way that makes it sound like he's not panhandling at all. and people usually give him more, because usually people only have 10s or 20s.

there were two different guys near sju, both hanging out by 7/11. however, one just stood by the door and asked for change GOING IN (moron), and the other one did the dress respectably and lie about needing money for gas sort of thing. i never gave money to the latter, would give a quarter to the other dude here and there.


the homeless people around up in reading don't seem to ask for money.

usually if the guy tells me a joke or something, i give him money. i mean, my main problem with panhandlers isn't that i don't want to give them anything. it's that they don't do anything to earn my money.

dudes should stand outside the 7-11 and just open the door for people or something.

TenuredVulture wrote:Speaking of panhandling--I think the best way to go is to look semi-respectable, and make up some story about how your wallet was stolen and you need $5 or $10 for train or bus fare to get home. I think asking for a specific amount is the way to go. This way, people won't stick you with $#@! convenience store sandwiches or other junk.

The grocery store I go to, there's been this guy who has come up to me like four different times with the same story. He's parked over at the Taco Bell but ran out of gas and just needs 5 bucks to get gas so he can get home. I never give him anything. One day I was feeling particularly snarky and said something like, "It's an amazing coincidence that you keep running out of gas in the same place all the time". He said "Fuck you, cock sucker". Couple weeks later he came up to me again with the same story.

There's this dude in Wilmington, we call him the Drummer from Poison - probably five foot five, long stringy blonde hair, bandanna, denim jacket, tight jeans, sunglasses, and cowboy boots. He wears an old school walkman, complete with the big orange headphones. He asked me for like, fifty cents once, told me he was "no joke" in recovery and was leading an AA meeting downtown, showed me the change he had and asked for more so he could grab the bus. I gave him the money. Seen him a billion times since then, he mostly just cruises by, sticks half smoked cigarettes from the sand-bucket into an empty marlboro box, and keeps going. Sometimes chills out on the loading dock for a little while, not bothering anybody.

One time though, he leaned over and his headphones fell down - he was listening to static. Just... static. Weird.

I think he's for real though, I've seen him walking around with a biker looking dude. He looks burnt but not high.

Barry Jive wrote:usually if the guy tells me a joke or something, i give him money. i mean, my main problem with panhandlers isn't that i don't want to give them anything. it's that they don't do anything to earn my money.

dudes should stand outside the 7-11 and just open the door for people or something.

well, the above guy did open the door for everyone. that was nice enough.

the belligerent ones usually need help, so it's kind of sad to see them. well, all need help, i'm talking mental.

On a separate topic, when did black kids start skateboarding

i see black kids skateboarding all the time. i've yet to see an asian kid rock a skateboard, not even when i did it as a kid.

Woody wrote:On a separate topic, when did black kids start skateboarding

i think one of those kids is black

uncle milt wrote:anyone remember that blind lady that played the flute or recorder or whatever it was on south street? i mean, if you went there between 1990 and 2001 you've seen her.

Wow. I actually do remember her. I spent a lot of time on/around South Street between 1989 and '91.

Meanwhile, whenever I see a young white person panhandling I can't help but think it's something they're doing for a college art school project. Probably I'm going straight to hell.

I pretty much never give money to panhandlers.

one guy i saw near South Street, a white guy, probably no more than 10 years older than i was at the time, was just pathetic. he just walked around and when he saw us coming by, he kind of grabbed his stomach and went "man, i'm really hungry" and stared at us. he did it twice! i just kind of laughed at him the second time. he was wearing normal clothes and everything. i don't know what he was doing.

I'll give a homeless person a few bucks every now and then, fully expecting them to spend it on alcohol. I figure I spend a lot of my money on alcohol so I guess I can't be too upset if they spend it that way. My logic is probably flawed here, but I rather give money to a homeless person than a cancer research charity for the simple fact that the amount of money I would give would go a lot further to helping the homeless than cancer prevention. In other words, my five bucks might buy someone dinner one night, but the cancer prevention industry won't find cures with five extra dollars.

uhhhh...

PrattRules wrote:I'll give a homeless person a few bucks every now and then, fully expecting them to spend it on alcohol. I figure I spend a lot of my money on alcohol so I guess I can't be too upset if they spend it that way. My logic is probably flawed here, but I rather give money to a homeless person than a cancer research charity for the simple fact that the amount of money I would give would go a lot further to helping the homeless than cancer prevention. In other words, my five bucks might buy someone dinner one night, but the cancer prevention industry won't find cures with five extra dollars.

actually, you're right in terms of immediate impact and value added