AA> their wonderful unsolicited music, or something. At first I 
 AA> thought that maybe someone was delivering a singing telegram. 
 AA> But the request to pay for the performance combined with the 
 AA> begging really pissed me off more than anything.

Are you often the recipient of singing telegrams?  It must have happened at least once if this was even a possibility...

 AA> lockdown) and cold (reduced heating). I thought it was unusual 
 AA> that someone wouldn't respond to my "Hello". He just comes up 
 AA> to the check-out counter and proceeds to pull out 3 different ID 
 AA> cards and lay them out. They looked rather worn from being 
 AA> stored in a pocket. I did not look very closely, but one of 
 AA> them had the words "deaf", "hearing", "please", "give".

This is similar to a scam I used to see in Airports, before 9/11, and still see on public transportation in The City (San Francisco).  A person, claiming to be deaf, will hand out cards indicating their are deaf and soliciting a donation.  Sometimes it will be accompanied by an item which you can keep if you donate.  It's most often a small package of tissues.  They will start at one end of the car, hand out all their cards and tissue, then go back and pick up the tissue, and/or donations left.

Bob Roberts
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