Buddy, Can You Spare 50 Cents? How About $10, Then?

Dallas officials will have their hands full cracking down on panhandlers and other miscreants downtown. Visiting the 1400 block of Main yesterday, I had to park on the street twice–the first time the meter ate a bunch of change without giving up any time at all–before being buttonholed for dough twice inside 50 yards. One guy pounded on the driver’s-side window, adopted a pitiful expression like from that “Scream” painting and begged, “Please help me. I’m hungry!” It ain’t nearly as bad here as San Francisco in the ’80s; a group of bums there liked to break into my daughter’s parked car and sleep in it overnight. But it doesn’t exactly make you eager to “find your D Spot” again anytime soon.