Out Of Poverty: Thieves
“Whoever has will be given more;
whoever does not have,
even what he has will be taken from him.”
— Mark 4:25 (N.I.V.)
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Mortgage Crooks and Street Hoodlums
So, how does one go about living in poverty, especially one who has lived outside of it for 47 years? First off, one must find affordable housing.
I moved from the Gold Coast, one of Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods, to Andersonville, a quaint, historically Swedish neighborhood on the north side, now known for, among other things, its lesbians. Girls’ Town, they call it, corresponding to Chicago’s openly gay Boys’ Town in the Lakeview neighborhood.
At the risk of sounding like a dolt, I like gay neighborhoods; they are always clean and pretty. They are also reputably safe, I suppose, because who wants to cross a band of excitable buff dudes? One minor drawback to living in Girls’ Town, though — every time I chat up a pretty female, it seems we’re always being interrupted by some butch cock-blocker.
Andersonville is also relatively quiet. In blunt contrast to the Gold Coast, where the soundtrack includes hourly ear-piercing sirens, one can hear birds while walking about.
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Allowing myself to fall prey to sophisticated crooks in the mortgage industry was what landed me in this place. And now, what little I had left was being taken by street hoodlums.
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I found just the right tiny vintage apartment across the street from what used to be a silent movie studio. In fact, I now live in what used to be the housing for the studio staff and crew. The management here has given names to the apartment units, mine being The Tom Mix.
Despite the neighborhood’s old-fashioned charm and gay-man beef patrol, my bicycle was stolen within the first two weeks of my residence. Welcome to Andersonville!
Allowing myself to fall prey to sophisticated crooks in the mortgage industry was what landed me in this place. And now, what little I had left was being taken by street hoodlums.
Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson performed here!
And still not one a those muthafuckahs gone to jail!!!
How come she gets to say motherfucker?
Because it’s a common Ebonics term. Myron, look . . . you called that cancer patient woman the c-word. I gotta draw the line somewhere.
Seems like an arbitrary line.
It IS an arbitrary line, Myron. That’s what this whole fucking website is about — the arbitrariness of propriety.
Okay. I concede defeat.