I like to give money to the discretionary fund for my Temple’s rabbi. This is a fund a lot of religious places have, and I’ve found that it’s a pretty cool way to give funds to needy people but also not get totally fleeced.
These religious organizations keep tabs on the people who often float from one to the next looking for freebies. So, they have a network with each other to be aware of who is genuinely in need and who is working the system.
The discretionary fund is also useful because it is at the rabbi’s discretion, so he or she can give as much or little as they want and use it on an ad hoc basis.
Keep being a kind person. I have a belief that even if people don’t use the funds wisely, the act of being treated with generosity is important to them, and to you.
I can’t either. I don’t know how people give: do they go to the first panhandler they see, do they pass a few by before they find someone they view to be sincere, or worst off of all they’ve seen that day? Do they give a penny or a dime, and say “hey this city’s thick with beggars, I want to be fair to everyone.”
He may be just impatient and gave up on you before you returned - probably he’s been promised stuff before by people who never delivered. He may have been run off by a store owner or the police. He may, as @LearnedCoward suggests, not have really been interested in food. At any rate, him being a terrible person is only one possible explanation.
I’ve only had one instance where it was not accepted graciously; I was running for an oncoming bus and even though the spanger in question saw I was in a hurry, he asked for a handout.
I had some left over pasta, so I pushed the container into his hands and prepared to take off again to catch my bus.
I’ll never forget the guy kinda turned up his nose and asked me: “What is it?” That floored me so much that I almost forgot I was in a hurry, and I had to pause.
“What does that matter?!?” I asked incredulously, before resuming my previous sprint.
But seriously, one time my family and I were leaving a pizza place with a good-sized box of leftovers, and were approached by a young man who asked if he could have them. We gave them to him, and he seemed genuinely grateful.
I invited him to come in so he could pick something out. That is my MO so the money goes where requested.What if I got something with peanuts and he had an allergy or something? He didn’t take my offer.
Some people are. I remember someone who asked me for money for a cup of coffee, and when I quite honestly said had no cash, but she could have the hot chocolate I hadn’t started (just cheap, fast food hot chocolate) she looked shocked at the fact that someone was willing to give her anything other than “fuck off”.
While I have never given outright cash, I have sometimes given bottles and cans if I see someone digging through the garbages for them. Sure, they may not use the proceeds for healthy meals, but while people might get hostile if you don’t give them enough cash, I have never heard of a picker freaking out on someone who gave them more empties. And whatever gets you through the day, sometimes.
OTOH, people who hang around ATMS and ask for handouts, they can fuck right off. I find another ATM if people loiter around or are clustered near it, or the entrance to the bank. That situation does not make me feel safe.
A lot of homeless people are Type 2 diabetic because cheap carbs is all they ever eat. I had a homeless guy turn down a spare breakfast cookie I had on me for that reason.
Remember that alcoholism and heroin addiction, among other addictions, can mess up one’s ability to digest regular food as well.
Some dirtbag in a SUV with Oregon plates ran a red light and headed to us pedestrians crossing with the light. I yelled “ISIS!!” to alert people. Considering the alt-right are demonstrating this weekend in my city my son says I should have yelled “Charlottesville!” Who’s correct?
Why do people hate me todsy? I did nothing wrong. Crossing with the light isn’t a crime.
Yell “fire!”. That way people will react to the danger.
As much as it’s in the news, “Isis” still makes me think of the ancient Egyptian goddess and the 70s TV show first, and the Middle Eastern authoritarians second. I probably would have stopped in the middle of the road and tried to figure out who the retro TV fan was.
I am severely allergic to shellfish. I can’t eat anything that has even been cooked with the same utensils as shellfish, and I avoid fried foods as a rule because of the cross-contamination risk. If there is shellfish in the broth, sauce, or powdered and added as an ingredient, I could very well die from eating it, and I can’t “just look” because it doesn’t look like anything.
I’ve seen YouTube videos where they couldn’t get through a simple fucking hamburger without adding shrimp powder to it, and grilled red meat is what I’d trust if I had to trust anything. Besides vegan food, obviously.
With people drowning in Texas maybe the rest of us are not supposed to complain about the weather, but here in Oregon we have six days of “widespread smoke” to look forward to:
$ forecast
HEAT ADVISORY
RED FLAG WARNING
FIRE WEATHER WATCH
FRIDAY: Sunny, with a high near 89. North northwest wind 6 to 9 mph.
SATURDAY: Widespread smoke. Sunny, with a high near 95. Northwest wind
3 to 5 mph.
SUNDAY: Widespread smoke. Sunny, with a high near 93.
LABOR DAY: Widespread smoke. Sunny, with a high near 95.
TUESDAY: Widespread smoke. Sunny and hot, with a high near 98.
WEDNESDAY: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Widespread
smoke. Mostly sunny, with a high near 92.
THURSDAY: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Widespread
smoke. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89.
Total displacement of my feelings about how fucked up the world is, but I just remembered that they killed Picard’s brother’s family off-screen in First Contact and I am LIVID.
I was just told that my work was “wrong and needs to be done again” because the spreasheet was sorted by a column other than the one they prefer.
When I mentioned that it was a matter of sorting, and I could definitely sort on any column they prefer, and that they could also sort by any column they prefer, they laughed at me, like I was the one whose grip on spreadsheets is lacking. OK, whatever, as long as the checks clear I don’t care. But, it grinds my gears to be told that my work is poor because they fundamentally misunderstand what they are asking me for.
{ducks}