Hey buddy I think you got the wrong door, the rock shelter's two blocks down.
Leatherman (vagabond)
131–140 of 153 posts
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#132Crazy to me that they exempted him from the vagrancy laws. Like "Oh we can have one mysterious and entertaining vagrant".
It mentions in his Wikipedia article that he had money although the source was unknown. The issue with vagrancy throughout history is not the vagrancy itself primarily, but the problems of theft and anti-social behaviors that go with it. Since this person had money, didn't steal, and seemed to mostly leave people alone, they weren't a problem and got an exemption because they were well known.
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hard does not mean negative or bad It does when it applies to your life. (Edit to reply to your edit) A bit of physical activity doesn't make your life harder. A lot of it might. And almost only hard physical activity is pure punishment, even literally used as such in labor camps. > the safety nets are often illusions Safety nets are sometimes illusions, they are mostly helping. Like an airbag they only need to wor…
> Insurance saved the livelihoods of millions of people, sometimes many times over. Rebuilding houses, repairing equipment, covering medical expenses, or critical services. Sometimes they fail you. This one always gets me. I've had 7 orthopedic surgeries in the past decade. I couldn't walk without a cane or tie my own shoes in 2016 and today I can skateboard, run marathons, and squat double my bodyweight. I've had my…
> People are so headline fixated that they only ever see the claim denials and think that's all that ever happens.
I’ve experienced plenty of my own claim denials. In fact, I had to stop treatment of my chronic condition due to the last one. This is certain to cause my knees to fail in a few years.
You think they only exist in headlines? Then get your own head out of the news and talk to real people.
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is ridiculously unfair. We're talking totals in the tens of millions for these procedures. You can make a very good argument it should be paid for by some other public means and I would not necessarily disagree with you, but given that doesn't currently happen, insurance did a lot more than just skim off the top. They paid for the work. And I'm not aware of any society out there right now that publicly provides…
I appreciate this backpedaling, but within the context of the thread your first comment credits insurance with your 7 orthopedic surgeries, and to that my response is more than fair. I'm not sure what to make of the non sequitur to reddit threads though.
Your take is non-sensical and obtuse, and the attitude is not much better so I’d hold off on the celebratory self-pat on the back.
The people who do the job should get a lot of the credit. But none of them do it for free. Insurance is there to make sure you can pay those people for what needs to be done in the aftermath of very unlikely but very high impact events. A lot of people pay very little so a few people don’t have to pay a lot.
The industry has a lot of failings but this doesn’t wipe out the utility of the service.
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#135He's pretty popular here in Connecticut. You can hike to one of his "caves" with a trail near Black Rock State Park.
Yeah I remember hearing about him when I was a kid. Amusing to see a local legend posted to HN. Didn't even have to click the Wikipedia link.
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#136[deleted]
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#137There is a recent episode of The Daily about him - worth checking out! https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/podcasts/the-daily/old-le...
Can recommend this as well!
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> .. it's absolutely devastating for my soul and morale. Why? Stay strong my friend.
For one thing, because everyone around you looks at you like you are dirty and the scum of the earth, on average. And that’s before you get to the fact that each night you need to find a place to sleep and nobody wants it to be near them . It’s immensely depressing, and hard to stay resilient.
Yeah I hear you. It would be de-stigmatizing if more people with mean were voluntarily "homeless" like the Leatherman. But people just wanna watch Netflix I guess.
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#139My brother has a friend who is the modern day equivalent. He travels North America by bike, eats pizza from cheap pizza restaurant dumpsters.
If he's eating from the dumpsters why not eat from the fancy restaurant's dumpster instead ?
I can think of a few reasons. People tend to overorder pizza more than other stuff. Pizza is also more robust than other foods, so it survives being thrown away more than other things. It's also very satiating, comprising bread, dairy and meat.
Re: Leatherman (vagabond)
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If he's eating from the dumpsters why not eat from the fancy restaurant's dumpster instead ?
I can think of a few reasons. People tend to overorder pizza more than other stuff. Pizza is also more robust than other foods, so it survives being thrown away more than other things. It's also very satiating, comprising bread, dairy and meat.
Right, but I'd expect it to be the same with fancy pizzas. I just don't get the point to target cheap pizza place in particular if you're going to dumpster dive