psychoceramics: The Ranter on the Bench

[dasher @ netcom.com (Anton Sherwood)]

Steve Lamont's tale of San Diego's "Sign Guy" inspires me to tell 
of a San Francisco fixture: the lean man who sits on a bench by the
Hyatt hotel, at the foot of the California Street cable, and shouts.
He has been there every day for ten years or more.  He is clean and
well dressed, usually shaved.  I've seen the shoe-shiners ask him to 
watch their stuff.  I once had a halfway coherent brief conversation 
with him.  But when he starts his act, he shouts things like

	"Quayle and Ron Howard! Is he senator tinkle and flush."

At least that's as near as I could come to what he was saying, one time 
when I tried to write it down; not that his rap on any other day was
similar except in style.  He'll say something like that over and over 
(with pauses), stabbing air with one hand.  Then he'll take a longer
pause and change it a bit.

	"Quayle and Andy Griffith! Is he senator tinkle and flush."

His rap always includes names from the current news.  Someone told me
recently that he is rich and comes in every day on the ferry from Marin.

We have our sign guys, too.  The middle-aged man at the foot of the 
Powell Street cable with the very neat NO UNLAWFUL SEX sign, denouncing 
immorality at length in black and red block letters of various sizes - 
I wouldn't be surprised to see his sign featured in a design magazine.  
Then there are the two young men, not far away, who stand on each side 
of Market Street with sandwich boards quoting Revelation 14:8 and 18:4 
(not KJV); I've seen them for several years, but think it's not always
the same pair; they look as though doing penance.

Anton Sherwood   *\\*   +1 415 267 0685   *\\*   DAS--@n--.com