Will work for nunchucks

The Dupont Circle area is home to a number of colorful characters. Perhaps none as interesting as the homeless who sit on the stoops, newspaper boxes, and park benches in the middle of the circle.

This afternoon, as I walked down across the circle, there seemed to be more folks than usual panhandling. (I always feel extremely conflicted about giving them money--since there are SO many of them, I feel bad singling out one or two people--but I do try to be polite and at least say I'm sorry when they ask me for change. Maybe that's even worse, I dunno, but it's all I've got.)

Anyway, the point is that there were a lot of them out today, probably since it is so beautiful out. And they usually have the same request, "Hey, can you spare some change?" "Can you help me get a sandwich?" or "I'm trying to feed my family, can you help?" But after lunch, as I headed back up to the office, we passed what might be the most creative approach I've seen in some time.

The sign said: "Ninjas killed my family. Need money for Kung-Fu lessons."

It was beautiful. I mean, I don't know if the guy was really crazy or just using crazy as his device, but damn! was it effective. I was tempted to go buy him some Ninja stars.