Pan Handle With Care

Here is my latest way of "panhandling," using as an illustration something that happened this morning; which I have just stumbled upon, blindly..


I'm walking along Iberville Street; there is a black man coming down the sidewalk in front of me and a tourist behind me....
the black guy is holding a cold can of Cobra Malt Liquour...he asks me for a cigarette...

I tell him "last one" ...he asks the tourist behind me for a cigarette...the tourist doesn't smoke....

I turn around to the tourist (and I suppose engage in my "hustle") saying with a grin: "Gee, I guess he had been walking around asking everybody for a buck for a Cobra; and now he is working on a cigarette...."

Then, I added: "I know when I'm flat broke, I take that as a cue to give up my distructive habits for a while..."

"Thank you!," agrees the tourist and hands me 20 bucks...

So, I guess when I'm flat broke in NOLA there is still no noticable interuption of the practice of destructive habits....
3 Dollars
Last night, I sat and played on Bourbon Street across from Barnaby's for just about the hour leading up to the 8 o' clock curfew.
Yet another random person came out of one of the condos on Sunday night; and read me the riot act about the 8 o' clock curfew.
She was kind of a "butch" type female (dressed masculinely and with short cropped hair) and I really got the feeling that she wanted me to grovel and maybe say something like "Please, this is my only way to make a living; I'm hungry.."
She had disappeared, then re-emerged after I had played for about a half hour and said: "Ok, you can play until 9 p.m., No later!!"
I guess she was giving me a break; I left anyways