Friday was another warm day, with hurricane-influenced winds blowing wet and cool from the northeast.\u00a0 When I met Dominick, the big bubble man, he said, \u201cThey\u2019re really generous today.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I set up at Bethesda Fountain to test his hypothesis.\u00a0 He was not wrong.\u00a0 Three ukulele lovers, in succession, dropped a dollar into my case.\u00a0 Four kids from Hunter High School stopped for a hula.\u00a0 After 2 verses of \u201cThe Hukilau Song,\u201d they handed back the leis and walked off.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A young man dropped a dollar, followed shortly by an old man.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An Irishman from Belfast walked into the plaza with his family and took a seat on a bench.\u00a0 Resting for a spell, I saw him watching me and enjoying the music.\u00a0 When it was time for him to move on, he approached me with 3 singles in his hand.\u00a0 We chatted about the buskers in Grafton Street, Dublin, and how the troubles were still troubling when I was there in 1980.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A woman from the benches gave me a dollar, and then, after a long lull, 2 Lubavitcher teenagers approached, asking if I\u2019d put on tefillin this morning.\u00a0 I engaged them in chitchat, but their English was terrible, and my Yiddish was worse.\u00a0 We agreed they would not hula, and I would not daven.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the end of my set I counted out 11 singles, not exactly generous, but open-handed all the same.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"