― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 4 February 2004 21:55 (twenty years ago) link
OTOH, i have rights too. and i DON'T like being threatened or hustled by folks.
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 21:56 (twenty years ago) link
Ah, the anguish...
― andy, Wednesday, 4 February 2004 22:00 (twenty years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 5 February 2004 09:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:11 (twenty years ago) link
sometimes i do worry about her.
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:19 (twenty years ago) link
O.k.
Someone asks you for change. You say no. You forget about it. Why harbour all the rage? Is it because you have middle-class guilt or something?
The only time I gave a large sum away was when I did ectasy, MDMA an coke at a party when I was 17. I was walking through the *insert name of big city* at five in the morning. A homeless dude asked me for money. I gave him £50.00. He kissed my hand. I felt his teeth mush against my skin. I was a bit. Oh. Traumatised. Like WTF? Do you think you have POWER because you can gift someone with a bit of cash? Not accusing just a'wonderin'...
― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:40 (twenty years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:48 (twenty years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:55 (twenty years ago) link
The Covent Garden end of Shaftesbury Avenue is full of drunkies and junkies; there's a bit of a needle park behind the cinema. People constantly beg off passers-by and once this really sketchy girl got Ed to give her three pounds 'to get home' and then came into the bar where we were having drinks and actually canvassed him again.
I'm not happy when I see women using their kids as props during fundraising initiatives in tube stations or shoving a note about how shit things are in Bulgaria into the faces of commuters, but that's nothing on the legless vets that used to canvass on trains in NYC. When people ask me for change I'm likely to say 'sorry, I'm skint' whether or not it's the truth, and at least in London that seems to be a reasonable excuse. When I lived in NYC I got into the habit of leaving cheap restaurants with a 'doggy bag' and giving this to the first homeless person I saw.
― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 5 February 2004 11:04 (twenty years ago) link
― sym (shmuel), Thursday, 5 February 2004 11:13 (twenty years ago) link
i mean, if they're supposed to be so wise then how come they ended up HOMELESS??
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 5 February 2004 11:24 (twenty years ago) link
― sym (shmuel), Thursday, 5 February 2004 11:25 (twenty years ago) link
Jimmy, I think it depends on how often you are asked for money and the manner in which you are asked. Where I live, you cannot avoid being hit up around 10-15 times every day, with some of the panhandlers wheedling and some subtly menacing. Also, it's not so simple as saying "no" and moving on; frequently, you will be followed and harassed or harangued. In fact, the other day I did give a guy some change just because it was below zero outside and he proceeded to yell at me as I walked away because I wasn't sufficiently polite when I gave him the money. If it were a simple case of "can I have some change", "No", "all right then", I don't think this thread would even exist.
― webcrack (music=crack), Thursday, 5 February 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:02 (twenty years ago) link
this "you MUST have rage b/c of middle-class guilt" is the attitude of someone who lives in suburbs or north bumblefuck (where, like, they don't have homeless people and if any showed up the cops would beat the shit outta them).
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 5 February 2004 23:17 (twenty years ago) link
Everybody knows that Berkeley Amoeba is the best, anyway. Plus there is the guy that sells jokes just outside. He told me that they would "guarantee [me] pussy".
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 6 February 2004 00:42 (twenty years ago) link
― dean! (deangulberry), Friday, 6 February 2004 00:44 (twenty years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 6 February 2004 00:46 (twenty years ago) link
― dean! (deangulberry), Friday, 6 February 2004 00:52 (twenty years ago) link
If you have nothing to do at six in the morning, sleep.
― elan, Thursday, 11 June 2009 00:17 (fourteen years ago) link
lol the other day a dude asked me for 90p so i looked in my wallet and the lowest substantial denomination i had was a £5 note, so i was floundering when he said 'give me that and i'll give you £2 because i need £3 to eat' so i saw he already had just over £2 in his hand and stupidly didn't say 'ok give me everything you have and i'll give you this', i gave him the note and he slipped me 50p and i was all 'OI you said £2' and he said 'no i said £1!' and then gave me 50p more so i guess i got some money back off a beggar but i certainly didn't plan to give him £4, he must have thought it was his lucky day to have found mugglesworth himself on the pavement outside liverpool street station
anyway if i am less than generous with the homeless for a week or two this is why
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:22 (fourteen years ago) link
you broke the first rule of giving away money on the street
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:27 (fourteen years ago) link
you broke the only rule of giving away money on the street. Which is giving away money on the street.
― Isambard Kingdom Buñuel (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:28 (fourteen years ago) link
lol missed out a "not" there
that isn't even in the top 5. rule 1 is don't take out your wallet duh
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:32 (fourteen years ago) link
you saying i should keep 50p coins in a separate pocket and give one away if i'm feeling particularly generous
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:34 (fourteen years ago) link
No just don't give anything is what everyone's saying
― Ork Alarm (Matt #2), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:36 (fourteen years ago) link
including me
if you are someone who likes giving away money, yes. i mostly say no but if someone asks at a bus stop or something i can just go in my pocket. xpost
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:37 (fourteen years ago) link
once in a while is not that bad who cares
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:38 (fourteen years ago) link
it's just that the tipping thread brought this back to the forefront of my mind - maybe i should be harder about these folks - also i only give if i'm alone, in groups it's way easier to say no
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:40 (fourteen years ago) link
how is it hard to say no when you are alone?
― I am using your worlds, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:42 (fourteen years ago) link
if there is sorrow in their eyes and they are following you
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:43 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah it's best not to reward followers imo. maybe you should have a blanket no giving money rule i guess
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:45 (fourteen years ago) link
ok, most of the homeless people I meet are stationary
― I am using your worlds, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:45 (fourteen years ago) link
on the mean streets of london they have a tendency to be mobile and persistent
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:46 (fourteen years ago) link
lolling picturing this, charles dickens like
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:47 (fourteen years ago) link
i once bought a big issue salesman a vanilla custard bun from the supermarket instead of giving him money and he told me he had already eaten but ate it anyway - he hadn't even approached me and he had a lot of big issues left so i felt sorry for him
they can be surprisingly dickensian yes
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:48 (fourteen years ago) link
i dont get accosted by panhandlers very often but i try to give change when i have some--its one of the five pillars fyi
― max, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 18:51 (fourteen years ago) link
One day I was taking some canned goods over to a friend who had a canned food drive going at work. A homeless guy was sitting on the curb and asked me for some money. I was poor at the time, but I had the canned food, so I go "do you want some soup"? He said "yes" and pulled out a can opener, popped off the top of a can of soup, and drank it.
So maybe Louis you should carry around a can of soup, because that way, if the beggar's really hungry, he'll take you up on your charity, and if he just wants money for drugs, he won't. Plus it's better than carrying around an extra sandwich or something because it won't go bad if you don't see any homeless.
― Kylie is a vacant Phifer (kingkongvsgodzilla), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:22 (fourteen years ago) link
it'd have to be a can of gazpacho - i'd feel nauseous at the sight of someone drinking raw soup that's meant to be heated
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Last time I stopped and fumbled w/my wallet on hearing the magic words "some change, mate" from some hunched dreadlocked guy with arm in plaster and scraggy dog, the guy said "no, I was offering YOU some change, it is my conceptual art project to make people think about how lucky we are here in the West" etc etc
anyway I mainly stopped because guy was reading a battered 70s sci-fi paperback
chatted until my bus came, A+ nutter, would give 50p again
― canna kirk (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:28 (fourteen years ago) link
^^^can you loan us some of your homeless folk plz
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:29 (fourteen years ago) link
regarding kkvsg's soup idea, in Oxford there is a homeless shelter which costs something like 2 pounds a night, and a charity from which you can buy tickets for the shelter and hand them out instead of change, which I have considered doing but worry that it looks v. patronising and middle-class and "I don't trust you not to spend my money on drugs so you will have a bit of paper instead", but maybe that is what I am actually thinking, so uh
I quite like giving out change as it makes me feel like a slightly less bad person, but it is less enjoyable when someone gives you the epic sob story of missing the last bus and needing money for the train, and then you see them the next night, and the next. also I am in a permanent state of thinking I am running late
― canna kirk (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:37 (fourteen years ago) link
homeless guy hung around reception today for ages today complaining, eventually lost patience and kicked out our laughable security screen. but then i do actually work in a housing office.
― dumb mick name follows (darraghmac), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:38 (fourteen years ago) link
― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark
idk, rly?
i think they have you down as a mark. you must give something off.
― free the charmless but occasionally brilliant Dom Passantino (history mayne), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 20:14 (fourteen years ago) link