Isn't It a Shame?

Every day I bike to work along the exact same route -- through a nice neighbourhood, down past Casa Loma to Spadina Road, then straight down Spadina Road into Spadina Avenue and to work. Every day at the corner of Spadina and Bloor there's an older "santa claus", white bear, red clothes and red plastic "crocs". He has a funny little "The sleigh broke down" sign, and even though he doesn't say much, it usually puts a smile on my face. As expected, he's out asking for money, and as expected, most people walk by him in the morning without paying him much heed.

I've been tempted more than once to give him a buck or two, but can't bring myself to do it. Every so often I'll see him talking / texting on his cell phone... My current policy is not to give money to "homeless" people with cell phones and or those who smoke. My logic is that if they have money for those things, they don't need my money.

I think the principle holds true for the smoking...but maybe its not fair or a good idea to hold it against someone if they have a cellphone, particularly if they're homeless and without a landline. Arguably, if they were looking for a job, most would require or expect to be able to reach the candidate by phone...

What are other people's thoughts on the matter?

On a different note, I was out for work tonight at a sushi place. A cool dude with his blackberry got a call at his table, so stood up to go outside to take his call...and walked facefirst into the glass door...phone drops, dude kinda crumples...and recovers. As soon as he went through the door atleast 10 people (moi included) broke out laughing....I feel bad laughing at other people's expense, but sometimes it really just *is* funny.

Labels: Laughs, Santa, Sushi