Spare Change Guy

I was meeting somebody on the Common today (it's amazing what you can do when the weather's nice). As I walked down Winter, there was Spare Change Guy doing his usual thing (and still clean-shaven) right at Tremont.

Meeting done, I walked through the Common back toward Downtown Crossing. Spare Change Guy was sitting on a bench. His hand was out, and he was asking for spare change, but he was really subdued, almost like his battery was worn down.

At his usual spot at Winter and Tremont, there was a Spare Change guy, somebody hawking Spare Change News. So is there some rotation going on here?

Do you think he used some of his spaaaaare chaaange to pay for it?

Spare Change Guy probably should have chosen a better place to ask for money than a march by people asking for money. Eeka, who forwarded this photo, reports SCG wasn't having much luck this morning.

Streetsim took the definitive Spare Change Guy photo at the Tea Party demonstration outside the State House earlier this month. Who knew he had an entire rooting section now?

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Garrett videoed Spare Change Guy working the crowds at yesterday's rally.

Cosmo Catalano picks up the gauntlet I threw down and puts up an audio mashup of Chinese Stick Guy and Spare Change Guy singing "Happy Birthday."

A correspondent spotted him down in Ashmont this evening, asking passers-by for, well, you know.

Sometimes, he asks for matches.

Whalehead King ponders Spare Change Guy:

He's an ugly guy with an ugly face. We don't follow him everywhere he goes but we suspect he brings up the rear in the human race. Despite that, he is a man and he seems to be an honorable one, even if he is often misunderstood. ...

The Mick is walking across the Common wearing a t-shirt with a large "P" on it, when Spare Change Guy approaches her, asks if she goes to Princeton and smokes weed.

And still being ignored in Downtown Crossing.

He's not just some innocent, if annoying, crank, he's a scary and potentially violent sexual harasser, duffless2323 warns:

... I have personally been harrased by him on 2 different occasions, a few years apart. I also saw him say some very violent and sexually explicit things to another young woman who was by herself until I turned the corner, I then walked with her and he went back to the spare change routine. She was very relieved someone came along. ...

Also, he's discovered Somerville.

Latest reports have Spare Change Guy trying to sell old T tokens in Cambridge.

Steve reports that Spare Change Guy is out of jail (one guess what he was in jail for) and on the Red Line and fretting about the fact that he's become a local celebrity.

Only in Boston, Kids discusses various faults of the Metro, but raises a scary possibility: Imagine if Spare Change Guy ever started hawking it:

Want a Free-e-e-e-e-e-e Metro-o-o-o-o?"

Carpundit applauds Framingham police for arresting Spare Change Guy:

... He is dirty, obnoxious, and a menace to public safety. He obstructs traffic by begging in the middle of the road, interferes with people walking on the sidewalk by swinging his arms wildly around, and frightens people with his disturbed visage and confrontational manner. ... What he needs is a nice little jail term.

Also, in answer to the question of how he gets from Framingham to Boston: Commuter rail - on which he, naturally, asks for spaaaaare chaaaaange.

Boy, you just never know. Here you are, thinking Spare Change Guy is one of those crusty fixtures in the Boston firmament and then you go and find out he's from Framingham - where they probably wish he really was from Boston:

... Trying to add a little jingle to his pockets, John Bubier was arrested for panhandling Sunday, just four days after he was nabbed for pulling the same stunt twice in one day.

"He's kind of crusty," said police spokesman Lt. Paul Shastany. "He doesn't take well to being told enough is enough." ...

So now, of course, one is left to wonder: How does he get into town? Commuter rail? Or does he stand by the side of Rte. 9 going:

Riiiiiiiide? Can you spaaaaaare a riiiiiiide?

Via the Weekly Dig, which seems as shocked as us.

Yup reports:

... Teal shirt, beige jacket, "CCAAN YOOOU BOUYS HELP ME GET A COOOOFFFFFEEEE? DOOO YOOOUU HAAAVE ANY SPAAAAREE CHAAANGE?" ...

Plus: Various Spare Change Guy arcana.

An eagle-eyed tblade went to Channel 25's Web site earlier today to get info about tonight's debate. He pulled up an interview with the Herald's Kimberly Atkins, chatting from in front of the State House. Toward the end, he noticed this bearded guy trying to get on camera. Spare Change Guy!

Greg Kulaga begins and ends a music video (set to Ween's "So Many People in the Neighborhood") with everybody's favorite panhandler (also features streets scenes from Downtown Crossing and Quincy Market). From January.

Fox Television Stations Inc.
25 Fox Drive
Dedham Massachusetts 02027
http://www.myfoxboston.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/C...
http://bostonradio.org/stations/6463.html

Please do more that addresses the problems of
the less enfranchised in our communities!

WFXT-TV's ridiculing of people in our communities who are less enfranchised, people of the streets, people who are homeless is not the best use of this type of morning broadcasting
http://www.myfoxboston.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/G...
in Boston on Channel 25.

Cc:
FCC Federal Communications Commission
http://www.fcc.gov

Matthew Smith puts together a bio of the Spare Change Guy, um, the SPAAARRRRE CHANGE guy, a.k.a. John Harrington:

... While most other homeless guys just sit there with their sign, this guy stands up, arms raised to the heavens, and shouts with his raspy voice the above mantra. ... over and over and over again. Sure it's annoying at first, but after a while it gains a certain charm and character. ...