BOSTON. Niles Oberg hates Christmas music and doesn’t contemplate himself a non secular man. “The one time I see the within of a church is when a good friend will get married,” he says. “And even then my flesh begins to creep after I consider all my one-night stands.”
“Dude, don’t EVER depart your seat.”
However Oberg and others who knew one another solely as passing acquaintances discovered themselves impressed by the Christmas spirit yesterday when the administration of a downtown Starbucks espresso store moved to evict Len Siklarski, a former monetary merchandise salesman who has camped out at a desk close to the cafe’s restrooms since he was laid off in June.
“Hand me one of many little inexperienced thingies, please.”
“He appeared good,” mentioned Debbie Hawes, a mutual fund accountant who works down the road. “One time he handed me a type of little inexperienced plastic plungers you stick within the Solo Traveler lid to maintain your drink from spilling.”
Confronted with an ultimatum from the afternoon shift supervisor that he purchase one other drink or face eviction, Siklarski appealed to the higher natures of different twenty-something patrons, soliciting donations for a cup of Pike Place Roast that will allow him to resume his lease on his favourite desk, or at the very least a barstool on the counter that appears out onto Summer season Avenue.
“Take a look at his resume — so weak in math!”
“Did I promote some individuals entire life insurance coverage when all they wanted was time period? Positive,” Siklarski says to this reporter. “Did I get anyone into tech shares when they need to have purchased an S&P Index fund? Probably. Am I going to close up in some unspecified time in the future and allow you to ask a query? I don’t suppose so.”
Siklarski set a Kickstarter-like fundraising purpose of $4.40, sufficient to purchase a “tall” cup of espresso and a blueberry scone, however he was shocked when individuals he’d by no means met got here via with $6.65, sufficient to get not only a scone and a peppermint mocha, but additionally depart a three-coin tip within the jar by the money registers.
“THIS is what a tip seems like, you low-cost bastard!”
“Pay it ahead is what I say,” Siklarski mentioned as he took a second to inhale the aroma of his sizzling drink. “Or at the very least as far ahead as me.”