And the troll on the corner, I flipped him a quarter
And he looked at me and smiled.
He wasn’t abused, he wasn’t confused,
He had nothing to gain and less to lose
You just don’t get NO respect from those Brentwood bums.
But not worth as much as you expected, which was a ‘thank you’ in return. It is you who doesn’t value the ‘thank you’ as much as the homeless guy. You think ‘thank you’ is worth only a quarter; others disagree.
Wait a fucking minute,this is a pitting towards an alleged homeless guy for failing to show proper respect towards some random lost dude who tosses him a 25 cent piece after he greases up on fatburgers and fries? What happened? Got your feelings hurt because your contemptible act was not appreciated? What a joke!
The OP is almost certainly trolling; is certainly an asshole.
Maybe he refused it because he naturally assumed that you’d earned it making crystal meth.
They were okay until fuzzypickles spit on 'em.
Exactly this.
How is giving money to someone down on his luck in any way “contemptible”??
Frankly, I think my experience proves that most of the time, giving ANY MONEY AT ALL to a homeless bum is a pointless, useless exercise. Had he truly been needy for food or shelter, instead of a fix, he would have been grateful. Instead, this guy demonstrated that he doesn’t give a fuck about spare change for food to survive (which he could get at any shelter downtown, there are plenty of social services available to feed and shelter these kind of people – but they don’t distribute heroin or crack, which clearly is what this guy actually wanted.)
If he’s jealous that I can afford a decent meal at a nice hamburger joint (is this really what it’s all about? Imagine the vitriol if I’d chosen to dine at the upscale sushi bar instead…) that’s not my problem. If he’s not comfortable with the fact that my standard of living is an order of magnitude greater than his, the smelly fucker should get his ass out of Brentwood and go back Watts or Pacoima or wherever he came from.
Once again, I wasn’t paying him for a “thank you.” I was “paying” him because he was kind enough to give me directions earlier, AND he was a fucking bum. You don’t pay non-stinky, non-homeless jerks for directions (and there’s lots of non-homeless jerks in L.A., believe me!) – it’s not something you “tip” for. But since he was clearly down on his luck, I went the extra mile and paid him for what is normally a “free” service. I wasn’t expecting anything in return because I had already received what the “tip” was basically for.
Now, if I had dropped my trousers and jerked off in his lice-ridden beard, that’s something I’d definitely expect a “thank you” for! 
This. It would have genuinely been more polite and respectful for you to thank the man sincerely, and give him nothing at all, than it was to give him a damned quarter. Simply thanking him would have kept your interaction in a purely social context, in which sincere thanks is the normal and appropriate response to helpful directions. But tossing him a quarter says “I think your assistance was worth this trivial and useless sum of money.”
I don’t generally give to beggars, but I do give to buskers - who, like this particular beggar, are actually providing a service. And I would consider it very rude to give less than a dollar.
[too late to edit…]
After reading my previous post, I just had a revelation. The last time I gave a quarter to a bum (also a Maine state quarter – I rarely, if ever, give money to the homeless, so I remember when it does happen) was near the corner of Van Nuys & Moorpark, which is a nice area, but not nearly as upscale as Brentwood. The homeless guy there did, in fact, thank me for it.
Therefore, you guys are right – he was expecting much more than a quarter, because it was Brentwood, not the Valley. A passerby in the richest part of L.A could easily afford to throw a five-dollar-bill in his direction, because that would be “spare change” to him. In the Valley, where the standard of living for working taxpayers isn’t as high, “spare change” is what you put in a parking meter. So yeah, his expectations did not meet what I gave him.
Which proves my point, by the way – this guy was a scam artist, plain and simple. Doesn’t matter if he’s genuinely homeless and can’t afford to brush his teeth, let alone feed himself; his “spare change for some food” was nothing but a ruse, his only intent was to use whatever money earned for DRUGS, not survival.
Lesson learned: one should never, EVER give money to a stinky, smelly, toothless, pee-stained, flea-bitten, leprosy-ridden, human-shaped blob of animated flesh, UNLESS you are okay with the fact that he’s only going to use the money on drugs to make himself into an even bigger stinky, smelly, toothless, pee-stained, flea-bitten, leprosy-ridden, human-shaped blob of animated flesh. (And if you do, check the street signs first for the “going rate” of supporting that subhuman’s drug habit…)
This is L.A., people! We have standards here!
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Not that I have any interest in continuing this obvious trainwreck of a thread, but you are wrong. A homeless beggar who receives money from ANY passerby should be grateful for ANY piece of coin I give him, because I’m giving him something he clearly did not earn, even less deserve. He should be thankful that I even looked in his general direction and acknowledged him as a human being. This experience has taught me otherwise, however – the next bum I meet is going to get a piece of my mind instead, he will learn precisely what I think of him. (And believe me, I’ve been restraining myself in how I feel about these wasted dregs of society – even The Pit has standards, you know!)
Come on…stop calling this guy a douchebag.What do you want him to have done? Would NOT giving the man anything have been more to your liking? No, a quarter doesn’t go very far but he’s a BUM. Maybe he is in the street because he was an ungrateful asshole before he made the very conscious choice to live the way he does. God, it’s not rocket science. Quit harassing this guy. He gave him enough to save for a meal, and not enough to spend it on anything expensive, like drugs.
So let me get this straight, because there’s one piece to this puzzle I am missing.
The OP is driving around in a wealthy suburban area in/near LA. The OP is hungry and looking for a certain burger joint. OP approaches homeless dude, asks for and receives directions. OP returns to scene of crime to insult homeless guy with useless amount of money and is incensed by homeless guy’s reaction, which was one of disdain.
So. Here’s what I can’t figure out. The OP clearly doesn’t think very highly of the homeless, who apparently are either batshit crazy and unhelpable or are drug addicts and unhelpable. The OP believes that any amount of money given will be wasted on drugs.
And the OP went to a burger joint, ate a meal, and then returned to the homeless dude.
WHY, if the OP didn’t want to support some crazy guy’s drug habit, didn’t the OP pick up an extra goddamn burger and give THAT to the homeless guy? A meal would be valued and appreciated and would probably not be traded for drugs. Then the OP could have actually expressed appreciation appropriately for being given the directions. And done a nice thing by feeding someone who wouldn’t have enough money to get anything to eat if the OP had flippantly tossed a quarter in the dude’s general direction.
I don’t think that is rocket science or anything. If you don’t want to give someone money, but they did a nice thing for you, then you could just offer a verbal thank you, or you could bring the guy a cup of coffee or a sandwich. If the guy then rejects a meal, then the OP has something to bitch about. Otherwise, I’m calling douchebaggery.
I’m ashamed to share an adjective with him. 
If your defense, I disagree with the consensus that your contempt was veiled.
Here’s the thing: the OP thinks he was performing a heroic gesture, and subsequently deserves heaping praise. All praise OP!
fuzzypickles this is what the problem is:
Giving away something of (practically) zero value is not an act worthy of thanks. In fact, it’s clearly and intentionally insulting.
Giving a quarter away costs you (and most people) nothing. The value of a quarter to us is so small that that amount of money gets left in jacket pockets, lost in couch cushions, abandoned on the floor of our cars, without a second thought.
If someone asked me for money, and I gave them a quarter pretending like it somehow should mean more to them than it does to me, I’m being a douche. It’s insulting because you have given something of no value to you, and the recipient knows this. After him giving you something of value (directions), this gesture is particularly jerkish. 25 cents tossed at him is not appropriate after he showed you some good will, because 25 cents is equivalent to nothing. You have lost nothing. 25 cents out of your net worth is imperceptible. Your margin of error for calculating your net worth is tens of times larger than that 25 cents. You gave nothing, and you weren’t even polite about it.
My guess is that if you had said, “hey man, I wish I had more change, but all I have is this quarter, here,” and handed it to him, you would have gotten a very different response.
Obvious answer: Because of the very real possibility that the hobo would not be there when he returned. Why buy food that could be wasted? If the hobo is gone you just keep the quarter, if the hobo is gone the food is wasted.
Pit answer: Because Burger joints dont sell fries in 25cent bags.
I’m wondering if the OP is able to make just one post that doesn’t take a cheap shot at this person. Just one. So far, I don’t see any evidence that he can.
Given this, I would wager that the OP isn’t as good at masking his contempt for homeless persons as he thinks he is. Really good actors are pretty rare.
You know, I’ve bypassed quarters I’ve seen on the ground. I just didn’t consider the effort exerted to bend over and pick it up worth its worth.
I will explain to you why FuzzyPickles is being called a douchbag.
Just so you know, it is not because he gave the guy a quarter.
Firstly, is because he posted in the pit with the title " Dear Homeless Person: Show respect when I give you spare change!" When I saw this, I thought “show respect?” that’s an assholish way to put it.
Secondly, he was bitching that after he “tossed him” the coin, and it landed on the sidewalk, the “bum” did not immediately scrabble after it amongst the dogshit, TB-laden mucous and other street detritus, for the amusement and entertainment of the OP. Instead, the “bum” was not sufficiently subservient and grateful for the tremendous favor of getting 25 whole cents; he did not show the proper respect to his betters. The bum could have told him to stick the lousy quarter up Mr. Pickles ass, and may well have been justified in doing so; however he did not. He just did not “show respect”.
Thirdly, the language used in the OP was unnecessarily provocative and over the top, and was quite clearly designed to provoke a reaction in the Straight Dope community. In fact, if fuzzypickles was NOT called a douchbag (and worse), I’m quite confident that he would have been sorely disappointed. I believe that was his intended purpose in posting this story in the first place.