For whatever reason I happen to like one of the candidates for office in DC. In order to run a candidate needs so many signatures and they need volunteers to go out and sign people up.

Anyway even though I live in the burbs, there I was in the afternoon heat in front of Kramer's books. Most of the pedestrians in the DC are just not open to signing a petition I came to find out. About two thirds of pedestrians are plugged in to either cell phones or ipods so they cannot or it's difficult to hear anything. Or they talking or involved in thier children.In the other third were many people that for the most part were not open to signing.

Most were just too burned out , foreigners who didn't speak English or just the idea of doing anything other then the lower of Mazlow's hierarchy of needs inconceivable. But I did find a small number who would and did sign a petition which would allow my candidate to run for office. It did not obligate them to vote for my candidate. I had the feeling that most did not know the candidate very much but for whatever reason signed.

What would you say if you were petitioning? You only have a millisecond to get there attention and hopefully get them to sign. You will be saying it thousands of times.You have to say it enthusiastically. I finally hit on"Hi." If they responded to that which few people do then I would ask , Do you live in the district. If they responded to that they were in the highly likely to sign category and I would close with, "Do you vote." If they said yes to that and they often would at that point and they often would then they would usually reply favorably to the request to sign petition.

But these were the very few who got to that point. I began to find that the highest percentage of signers were very attractive intelligent looking women. I'm happily married, wore my wedding ring and wasn't at first looking for women but I found it interesting and fulfilling that beautiful intelligent women felt like signing my petition. After a while I just, well, started looking for a particular type of woman.

But the best street workers were the Street Sense sales people. These were sellers, probably themselves homeless of the newspaper Street Sence.They showed up during the rush hour and sold thier paper. I got to talking to Mr. Morrow who worked the street nearby. He was a real professional. Dressed snappily in a pressed shirt and tie he really worked people, flirting shamelessly with women, cajoling people to be concerned for the homeless and selling his papers. He had a particular corner he said he would always work. As a professional courtesy as a fellow street worker he gave me a copy of his paper hoping also to spread the work to the suburbs and Reston. I had noted that the Reston homeless shelter is not listed in the papers list of shelters. At the end of two hours though I was exhausted. I had a beer in Kramers talking to a beautiful charming lady and a journalist in the adjoining stool about the Democratic election then headed back to the subway and the burbs hoping my candidate had enough signatures.- Rod