1) One day about two years ago I was riding downtown on the Number 4 train. One of the regulars came through the car looking for some generosity. I hadn't given him anything in a while, so I gave him a dollar. I am not telling this story so anyone will think that I am charitable. I no longer believe in Charity as we usually practice it in our age. It is frequently accompanied by its brother Guilt and its cousin Superiority.
As I was leaving the train at 14th St. that day to change for the Number 1, a lady tourist stopped me. I could tell she was a tourist by the brand new very white running shoes she wore. She was about five feet tall and quite wide; her shoes had never seen a gym, just come out of the box, and were getting their first experience of concrete and dirt.
She said, "Where I come from, we don't give them money, because it just encourages them not to get jobs."
"He has never struck me as a particularly encouraged human," I responded, "And as far as can tell, this is his job."
She waddled away, having lost interest in finishing her sermon. Soon she would be back in her land of common sense, baking pies for the church picnic. But, perhaps, that's an overly-generous thought.
2) I was reminded of that earlier scene this morning while passing through Grand Central on the way to the Shuttle. I passed a man who had just squatted by the door and unfolded a hand-printed sign about needing bus fare to get home Upstate.
One could tell, by even a casual glance, that this was not a "typical" down and out inhabitant of GCT. His clothing and haircut were too neat. He wore fairly fashionable eyeglasses. A few minor adjustments and he could have been on his way to make a Power Point presentation. I back-tracked and gave him two dollars. He looked like someone with whom I had worked; he could have been one of my tennis partners last summer.
Besides, on principle, you have to help anyone getting on a bus Upstate; few go there by choice.
3) Will we soon see Greece represented on Grand Central's floor? This is a country which apparently has two calendar systems. One is the usual 12-month version; the other is 14-months. The latter represents the number of months for which the government pays its employees. Throw in vacation and "sick" time and many Greeks actually work only about 10 months per year for 14 months pay.
Maybe they should call it Detroit instead of Greece.
The Times and the Germans are already rounding up the usual banking suspects who invested in credit default insurance while shorting Greece. It seems like someone actually figured the math that suggested paying for 14 months work , when you get only 10 might be a bad idea over a long period of time. Not to mention that Greece cooked the books (shocking) to hide all of this. Is Madoff a Greek name?
Poor GoldiSocks, they just cannot catch a break. It looks like they too shorted Greece, then helped devise a complicated way for the Greeks to hide all that bad stuff.
I wonder what that white-sneakered lady thinks about Greece? Probably thinks its a long-running show.
Please be generous when you see Greece, democracy's cradle, in Grand Central. After all, without them we wouldn't have Congress or the Senate. Hmmmm?
4) Speaking of which, today is the Healthcare Tea Party. You might think that Washingtonians and Tea-Partyers don't have much in common, but you can bet your Beck and Sean that they do indeed.
Washington's stupidity, incompetence and unlimited borrowing habit are based on the concept that we must keep the US number one in the world forever, or, at least have its citizens believe in that concept.
Tea-Partyers, as disgruntled as they are about everything from evolution, to aliens to the IRS, think the same way. The whole point BeckSean are trying to make is that we better get our money back from Washington so we can buy some big cars, eat some big food, shoot some big animals and smoke our small brains out. That's the way we can beat the Chinese and stay on top forever.
Same story, different methods. Be generous, but short both of them.
If you think that both are right, and that we really can stay number one forever and ever, I suggest you take a good look at....Greece....as you pass through Grand Central.
Note: Upon returning home through GCT in the evening, I noticed that the same man was, unfortunately, still there. He had moved perhaps twenty feet. He was asleep.
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