The Truth Is Flexible

Lane DeGregory: You have to go to work early. That's what they call it, going to work.



Get there by 7 a.m. or some guy who says he's disabled, or some woman who claims she has kids, will steal your slice of sidewalk.



You want an interstate off ramp: lots of traffic, an overpass for shade. Or a busy intersection with a long stoplight.



And you need a sign: your life story summed up on a soggy square.



Better yet, make two signs, so you can be whatever you need to be.



"After a while, you learn what works," said Roderick Couch, 28. He was in a wheelchair outside a St. Petersburg Wal-Mart last week, clutching a sign that said, "Disabled." The word was in quotation marks, as if…