characters

Neuroboy files an e-mail report from Downtown Crossing:

Just sitting here at work in Downtown Crossing minding my own business. What is that enchanting sound I hear wafting in from the street below? It’s the siren song of everyone's favorite hollering trike rider, Louie Evans, making his way down the sidewalk on Washington St.

Ride on Louie, ride on.

The Plastic Bag Lady of Park Street is in touch with the zeitgeist, based on the sign she was wearing on her back today.

Robbie Felder, the omnipresent Mattapan panhandler whose disappearance a few months back sparked rumors he was dead, is back slowly walking up and down Morton Street, quietly asking for money.

On a Facebook page set up to discuss the man who has been a familiar sight for years as he walks from one side of Blue Hill Avenue to the other, people report he is looking better after his time in rehab. However, one person who saw him tweeted he wasn't looking too hot today.

The rumor spread like wildfire tonight: Robbie Felder, who has spent much of the past decade shuffling up and down Morton Street asking for handouts, was dead.

Not true, counter people who say they know his family: Nobody's seen the white-bearded guy recently on Morton Street by Blue Hill Avenue because he's in rehab.

The story unfolded on his Facebook fan page (yes, of course, he has a Facebook fan page):

PEOPLE ARE SOO IGG FAMILY HAS STATED THT MR.BOBBY IS ALIVE AND DOING WELL HIS SO CALLED FANS ARE STILL DECLEARING HIM DEAD AND FOR THOSE WHO CALL HIM A BUM AKA BUMB MR. FELDER ATTEND MORNING STAR BAP CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY I CAN SPEAK FOR THAT HOW MANY BUMBS DO YOU NO WHO ATTEND CHURCH SERVICES PEOPLE GET A LIFE