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 the writer were crossing his fingers. Couch limps but can walk 100 blocks of U.S. 19 in a day. He hasn't worked since he got out of jail.