Finally, we abandoned the phones and decided to give away money. "Excuse me sir, would you like some money?" we asked. Still no takers.

Then we held a dollar bill out and asked people passing by if they wanted it. "Excuse me, would you like a dollar?" we asked. For 45 minutes, we could not find any takers.

Some people said "no thanks, I already have one." Others wouldn't even stop when we accosted them on the street, even though we had no intention of asking them to donate to wheelchair basketball or the Endowment For John N. Rosenthal.

Others were more confused than our mailbox patrons. "What, a real dollar?" they would ask. "What's the catch?" As we were explaining to one young woman that there was no catch, a destitute-looking man joined our conversation. "A real dollar?" he said in a gruff voice.

We were about to give him the dollar, since he looked like he needed it. But he said "does it look like this one?" as he shifted his pocket flask to his other hand and pulled out a wad of bills. Seeing that he had more cash on him than Steve and I had put together, we decided not to give it to him. He blew it.

But the woman who we originally stopped also refused the currency. She must have thought that the guy with the wad was a shill. Or maybe, she was just like the hundreds of other people we stopped who did not want to look like they needed the money. Maybe they were all too busy to stop for a while and smell the roses. Maybe they were all too accustomed to thinking they can get something for nothing, only to find out that you have to sign up for seven months of Physicist's Weekly in order to get a free gift. Maybe their experience had told them that we were just two jerky college students trying to make fun of them. Or maybe they were just stupid.