Issue 11
DOWNSIZING NEWS
                          November 2002

Homeless Man Working at University Bookstore Requests to Keep Change
Student Only Wanted a Blue Book and Mascot Fleece

      University of Texas Linguistics major Ronald Morgan was taken aback when Bookstore employee and homeless drifter David Colborn asked if he could spare the change he was handing Morgan for his $21.48 purchase on Tuesday.

      "I was totally thrown for a loop,” stated Morgan as he pondered over an official UT paper football and field goal package. “All I was trying to do was purchase this blue book and burnt Orange sweatshirt when this guy just tries to pocket my change. I really just didn’t know what to say. I was already running late for my J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth class, and he didn’t even give me a receipt or anything.”
      Colborn, who has lived on the corner of Guadalupe and 24th street for over a year, stated that he often asks preoccupied college students if they could spare any change as he checks them out at the front counter. “I look at it as having two jobs,” said Colborn. “While on the one hand the Bookstore is giving me $6.15 an hour and a sweet dental package.


Above: David Colborn relaxing after work

(two packs of Trident White per pay period), I am also still homeless, so it is in my nature to beg. And what better time is there to ask for money than when it is already in my hand?” Colborn continued by saying that he hopes with enough students contributing their quarters, nickels, and dimes, he can one day get off of the streets of central Austin, or possibly beat the high score on Cruisin’ Exotica at nearby Le Fun Arcade.
      Although Colborn has been homeless for the greater part of his adult life, he plans to have an apartment at least “some time before the end of this season of The Sopranos.” He cites HBO as probably his biggest motivation for the initiative to gain stable shelter. “There’s no cable on the streets. Sometimes people will drop off half-broken televisions, but pretty much all we can pick up is that Cedric show,” complained Colborn.