The Writer's Life 12/17 - Panhandlers

In his op-ed piece in today’s NY Post, Michael Goodwin pointed out a statistic that is very telling given the ongoing protests about police treatment of minorities. In 2013 NYC cops shot at 40 suspects -- an all-time low.

I love the Post, read it every day. Today was a rare instance it disappointed me. In its article about yesterday’s atrocity in Pakistan, the headline was: Miscreants Massacre Kids. Miscreants? They are monsters. Such a headline is something I would expect from the Times or other liberal publications.

The weather has been so pleasant since Saturday. Last year at this time temperatures began running ten to 15 degrees below normal and continued to do so for most of 2014. I hope we've broken that evil pattern -- at least in winter. Operating the floating book shop has been a snap lately. Ol' Smoky stopped by today. He's been sleeping on the subway. Before he was evicted, he donated about 100 books, and I believe I've sold every one of them. Since he was so kind to me, I let him take any books that interest him. Today he chose a perfect fit, a thin paperback -- The Panhandler's Handbook by Omar the Beggar, published in 1977. I looked it up at Amazon, where two copies of "Unknown Binding" are offered for $61.85 each! There are two reviews of it, one four stars, the other five. The second is by a woman who claims the book saved her life. After she lost everything, she consulted the book and came up with a scam where she dressed like a teenager and hung out in airports, crying that she'd run away with a boyfriend who became abusive, expressing a desire to return home. She averaged $300 a day. I hope Smoky finds a scam that will serve him as well.
My thanks to the kind folks who made purchases today, and to the sweet elderly woman who donated five books.

Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/rP7o9

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/