One-Way Ticket to Palookaville
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- September
- 24
This is how urban legends get started. I can’t substantiate this, but it’s a story I heard second hand.
A couple of postings ago, I mentioned this strange dude who was hanging out in front of the supermarket in Bronxville. When I saw him, he was wearing a red mask and holding a sign that said “Hungry.” He didn’t talk, and it wasn’t clear whether he was begging for money or hoping for a spare loaf of bread or something. I’d also seen him stretched out on the sidewalk, striking a leisurely pose without a shirt. He looked like a beached whale.
There was nothing that seemed illegal about his activity. However, his odd and slovenly presence in such an exclusive community evidently bothered more than a few.
And this what I heard. I heard that some rich chap couldn’t stand it any longer. He offered the masked man a one-way plane ticket to San Francisco—and the man accepted it! I have no idea if this story is true, but I can say that the guy hasn’t been seen lately. ( I wonder if he’s patrolling the Embacadero now.)
Anyway, it’s a great story. Talk about discretionary income.
This entry was posted
on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 1:04 pm by Phil Reisman.
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Phil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
Who says Bronxville doesn’t take care of their own ?
Ha! Reminds me of the ending of a Jim Jarmusch movie called “Stranger Than Paradise”