The word from the street
TONY
“Look what some guy handed me just before I got on the bus last night: a full pack of Peter Jackson’s. “Pretty good, eh?”
PHILIP
“Are they the best?”
TONY
“Well if I had to choose, that would be Export A’s. But lots of folks can’t handle those ones. Those are the real killers if you ask me.”
TONY
“Excuse me.”
PHILIP
“What?”
TONY
“I said ‘excuse me’.”
PHILIP
“Oh. Why?”
TONY
“Just burped, that’s all.”
PHILIP
“I didn’t hear it with all the traffic and everything.”
TONY
“Just wanted to be sure just in case, if you know what I mean.”
PHILIP
“How are you?”
TONY
“I had a god-awful time getting out here this morning with this rain, rain and more rain.”
PHILIP
“Me too. Well, I guess it’s not the same exactly, is it? Sorry.”
TONY
“Well, you know what they say; everyone’s got their problems, so I know what you mean, if you know what I mean.”
TONY
“At least you know when it’s cold, there’s going to be hockey on. I’ll tell you, that’s the best thing I’m thinking about winter right now. Coo-oo-oold.”
Hi all,
Tony’s back after five days in isolation at St. Joe’s. He’s in remarkably sturdy condition. Here’s a photo I took this morning while Tony was interviewed inside Alternative Grounds by a reporter from the Toronto Star.
Philip
Hi all,
Thanks to Gwen, a mutual friend, I learned this afternoon that Tony’s out of the hospital. I’ll catch up with him tomorrow. 🙂
Philip
Hi all,
Tony’s still in the hospital, in semi-isolation and — as usual — frustrated that they are limiting his food intake. He’s always happy to have visitors.
Philip
Hello all,
Tony just called me from the hospital. He’s been admitted to St. Joe’s for bleeding in his lungs. I will see him later today and let everyone know what I find out. In the meantime, I can say that his voice did not sound as weak as the last time he called me from the hospital.
Philip
TONY
“Someone told me that it’s going to be Christmas in six weeks. This year just kind of just flew by, if you know what I mean.”
TONY
“You know, some asked me just now why the construction guys are being so long doing the sidewalk on this block? D’you remember that terrible stink from up the street the other night?
PHILIP
“No.”
TONY
“Well, they broke a gas main. They nearly blew themselves up. And I’ll tell you, what a smell! I hate rotten eggs, I can tell you that.”
TONY
“Man, it’s noisy with all this construction and everything. It’d be nice if they could be more quiet about it. Silence is golden, you know.”
Hi everyone,
This is the 499th posting since we began our blog just a hair more than four years ago. [We (i.e., Philip) were too enthused to wait until the next one. ]
When we launched, so far as we knew, HomelessManSpeaks.com was the first blog to ongoingly express the words of an ongoingly homeless person.
Thank you to our many friends and readers. Your ongoing presence has provided us with a unique and extraordinary experience, weird as it has sometimes been. We expect more of the same.
Tony and Philip
TONY
“Pardon me, sir, could you spare me a couple of bucks for a sandwich?”
PASSERBY
“I don’t have the money, guy. Nothing to do with you. Good luck on you.”
TONY
“I wish I liked that person more.”
PHILIP
“Who’s that?”
TONY
“Over there, the other side of the street there. With the hat. I bet he’s an OK guy inside but something about him just gives me the creeps. You know what I mean?”
TONY
“You never told people about my new Elmo here.”
PHILIP
“Ooops. Sorry about that; I’ll post it later today sometime.”
TONY
“Promise?”
PHILIP
“Promise.”
PHILIP
“I just found my new all-time-favourite Winston Churchill quotation. Did you ever hear this one, he said: ‘The first quality needed is audacity.'”
TONY
“Nothing to argue with from me.”
PHILIP
“Believe it or not, he said it about painting.”
TONY
“Now that’s why they loved him, you know, because he could say those things like that. That’s how we won the war because of him. But I didn’t know he was a painter.”
PHILIP
“Did you hear about the wind warning for Toronto? It’s sure picking up around here.”
TONY
“When that wind starts up, I’m target number one on its list, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I’ve got nowhere to hide.”
TONY
“I hate to say ‘I told you so’ but I told you so.”
PHILIP
“Are you talking about Rob Ford?”
TONY
“Well, what did you think I was talking about?”
PHILIP
“You know, this is our fourth birthday.”
TONY
“You mean the blog?”
PHILIP
“Yup. We’ve made nearly five hundred posts and we’re closing in on 250,000 visitors. Pretty good, eh.”
TONY
“You know, I didn’t expect it to last this long. But I’m glad people like it, that’s for sure. Now all I gotta do is get myself somewhere to live and we can do some other blog. When that’s going to happen, I’ve got no idea.”
PHILIP
“So you want to keep going?”
TONY
“Sure, why not.”
PHILIP
“Me too.”
TONY
“Cold again this morning, eh? This is going to take some getting used to, same as every year.”
Homeless Man Speaks 