I drove to work on a different route than usual because of a traffic tie up on my regular path. When I got to the corner of
Having someone begging for money is nothing new at this intersection. I have seen the same folks for years who are “temporally down on their luck”. They all follow the same routine, brown cardboard and a black magic marker sign explaining they need money and “God Bless”.
Apparently the competition has reached new heights in the panhandling community. What I saw was a man walking with a plain white sandwich board hiding his identity and he was peering through a small hole cut in the board. In his arms was a very distressed looking ventriloquist dummy begging for money with his hand held out.
If I could have gotten to him in time I would have given him money for creativity and entertainment value alone. This guy will go a long way in his begging career if he applies himself.
Personally ventriloquist dummies scare the hell out of me. I don’t like the way their eyes and mouth moves. I rank them on the scary scale right up there with sock monkeys, clowns and flying monkeys.
I was however willing to overcome my fear for his effort. I will go this way again tomorrow and see if I can get a picture and give him some money.
4 comments:
I am very impressed. Any chance you can snap a picture next time?
I agree those dummys are scary but the thing that scares the bejesus out of me are wax mesuem figures.
I just got the shivers thinking about them!
the twilight zone made hose dummies scary.
Creative panhandlers are much more worthy than the ones who stand there with a carton of smokes and a crappy attitude.
I've always been freaked out by those ventriloquist dummies too. But definitely, POINTS for effort to that guy!
I find myself more sympathetic to a panhandler that's creative and/or industrious. I'd sooner give $5-$10 to someone who offers to wash my car or my windows, than a quarter or two to someone who demands "gimme a dollar"! (Actually panhandling inflation is rampant here, no one ever asks for a dollar. A year or so ago it went up to 2 dollars, now many ask for 5)
Anyone can fall on hard times. I respect someone who's willing to put at least a little effort into being productive, rather than just expect a handout.
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