Oh, you’ve seen him in his Santa costume too, Desmostylus? Gus, I wouldn’t call you ugly. You DO, however, look like you could be either someone’s best friend or someone’s worst enemy in a dark alley. And I wouldn’t mind having you for a next door neighbor, just to talk to.
The most recent photos I’ve seen show Colleen in a Santa Hat, but Gus doesn’t even need one:
http://members.aol.com/gusnspot/
Gus looks more cuddly than scary. 
I have to agree - Gus looks like a big ol’ shaggy teddy bear. Hell, I’ve stepped on uglier things just walking into the kitchen on a cold winter morning. (I won’t even mention the time I stepped on a mouse in the bathroom in the middle of the night…)
But it’s a fact that big and male is less likely to be bothered by this sort of bullshit than small and female.
I hate, hate, hate panhandling in any form. IMHO, giving to any of them, be they firefighters, bums, or kids selling candy, just encourages the practice, so I always say no. In the US, there are just too many other ways to raise money. The only time I have given to beggars was in Kenya, where it seemed to me that the disabled truly had no other way to support themselves.
I’ve met panhandlers in downtown Jackson quite a few times. Met the same guy a few times, who kept using the same story. I finally called him on it the third or fourth time. I would have the second, except I was laughing to hard.
Chicago panhandler rant part 2:
The panhandlers were thick on Division between Clark and State. They choose a business with a lot of traffic (like Walgreens), stand right in front of the door and do their thing. Usually when the business gets enough complaints, they will encourage the panhandler to move. I’m still not sure what they say to get them to move, calling the cops sure won’t help. So, invariably, when a panhandler is forced to move, the business had a broken window in the morning.
I started to get vigilantly ideas in my head. I didn’t like being forced to think like a violent criminal, this really bothered me. One morning I saw a couple skin-heads kicking the shit out of a panhandler in front of Walgreens and I got some kind of vicarious pleasure from that scene. I knew it was time to get the hell out of that city (well at least that neighborhood).
Mrs. Claus is hot!
The first and last time I gave money to “panhandlers” it was a husband and wife team working a shopping mall parking lot: “We just came in to do a little shopping but now we realise we don’t have any money for gas to get home” or something like that. Being young, naïve, and sympathetic, I gave them my last bit of cash. Although, I remember wondering why they didn’t just take whatever they had bought back, I didn’t want to give people in a bad situation a harder time. It wasn’t 'til much later, possessing all the lightning quick faculties my username would imply, that I realised I had been scammed. I hoped they felt guilty, 'cuz I bought it hook, line, and sinker, and had felt so embarrassed for their predicament.
:wally
You are in the richest, most opportunity laden country on the face of Earth. And you can’t make it, do you realize you’re f**ked everywhere in the world…I gave money once, but only after I told him to tell me a joke…
O.k, maybe it’s a language barrier thing- how exactly do you define a panhandler- is it diiferent from homeless beggars?. Because there are plenty of studies that say that long term homeless people- the ones that you see begging and sleeping on the streets at night, are often people with serious problems, often mental health related. So the old, “stop being lazy, go out and get a job” attitude doesn’t work with these people.
I tend to be quite patient with beggars, unless they are rude or theatening. Despite most people assertions to the contrary, I can certainly think of easier ways to earn money than sat on a filthy pavement in the middle of winter, having to beg strangers who are often rude and hostile to me for a few coins.
Also, I feel that here in Hungary, many homeless people have a different set of problems. Communism only ended here 13 years ago, and for a lot of people who had lived their lives without having to worry, because the state always provided them with a job and a place to live,couldn’t adapt to the “dog eat dog” capitalist society that replaced it. Consequently, many homeless people here are quite old, and seeing as the winter here can get pretty nippy (-10 to -15), and they are still slepping outdoors (I’ve seen them), I can’t find it in my heart to hate them- even if they are hopeless alcholics- and most of them are (as an old teacher of mine once said- wouldn’t you be an alcholic if that was your life?)
I get pretty sick of the firefighters panhandling in the middle of the streets. The worst, however, was a couple of weeks ago. There were two police cars holding up traffic at the intersection. At first I thought there was an accident then, when I got to the traffic light I found that they were helping the kids in the local soccer team raise money for the team. How much does it cost the city to have two police cars and four cops tied up in this fund raiser?! Jeez, what ever happened to selling candy bars to raise money?
Broomstick, you’re small and female? Cooool. Your posts suggest otherwise. You post “big”. Confident, and in-your-face. No wonder that guy ran off. Excellent stuff!
Gawd, I’m terrible with Doper’ gender.
Just speaking from my experience with Chicago panhandlers …
Most of them seem to be able bodied, able minded people. It’s like panhandling is an occupation in Chicago. Now the ones I saw that were obviously disabled, I would help them out, I have no problem with that. But you get these 20 year olds, of sound mind and body jumping in your face with, “Gimmie a dollar”. Now that’s annoying, and it happened to me several times a day, every day. Any yeah, many of them jump in your face in Chicago, they don’t just sit there with a cup and mind their own business.
She’s a poster here, too. LadyDragon.
I give to panhandlers. They need the money more than I do.
Just wanted to say that to add some balance to this pile-on.