one moment of giving

Read the rest of these pictures to see the whole story...

cocoa pudding

Toscanini's has great ice cream flavors and a big wooden table, good for wrapping gifts.

Wrapping

inscribing

Most of the gifts also had notes or some message in them. Here Listener applies something to his.

Head wrapping

Next thing I know, rongo rongo has put this on me. Eep!

Wrapped

Gifts are more exciting when they're packaged in colorful paper.

Central Square

We embark at Central Square station

Giftee #1, selected by rongo rongo

I'm not sure why I picked this giftee, whom you can't see behind bunny dragon, except possibly that because we share some demographic similarities, I was less nervous approaching her. From previous stranger tasks, I have concluded that people who look like me seem to turn me down less often when I have a random request. Since she was reading a book, I had to get her attention first. "Excuse me, my name is Alice, and I'd like to give you this gift." "Oh? Thank you." "You're welcome." She accepts the gift and goes back to reading her book. Hmm, I don't think this is likely to have made her day.

good luck charm gifts

rongo rongo figured that everyone can use a bit of extra luck, so these are the gifts she made.

Harvard station, crimson line

We kept to the tactic of exiting the train after each gifting, except one time when bunny dragon got off and the rest of us stayed on board.

Giftee #2, selected by Listener

I looked around the train car as I entered and sat opposite a woman who looked like she'd had a long day. She didn't look particularly receptive, and I checked out the other passengers, but as we approached the next stop, I decided to stick with her. As the train started to slow, I stood and went across to her. I held the gift toward her and said "Hi. I'd like you to have this." She started to refuse; I said "No, please. Take it," and tried to smile. She took it very tentatively, looking quite puzzled; I said "I think you'll enjoy it" and fled out the now open door.

Listener's gift

Listener's inscription

"Given to a stranger in the hope of making your day better, A friend"

Illustrated

blurry artifacted moment of giving!

that grayish shadowy figure in the background is Listener making his move across the train car to hand off the gift

Glove art, by Maggie Harris

At the top of the escalator in Porter station, you'll see a large bronzed glove holding a small bronzed glove.

Down the escalator

Those are more of the bronzed gloves.

On the floor

This was the first of the gloves Burn Unit noticed. Public arts makes MY day.

In a corner

Giftee #3, selected by Burn Unit

This was about the only other person in the car, so I was bound to pick him! We were coming to the end of the line (Alewife) and I noticed he had a boxy looking thing in his lap so I used questioning him about it as an entree to conversation. I hoped beyond hope it was what I thought it was: a Polaroid camera! (a Joy Cam I think) Turned out he ran a camera shop and was a Polaroid enthusiast and had a lot of interests. I said I wanted to give him a gift, I was out giving gifts to people. He was a little dubious but quite happy to say yes.

Spreading SF0

I told him about SF0 and how many of us run around taking all kinds of awesome photographs (I mentioned Shalaco's cool pinhole digital and he seemed suitably impressed) and I gave him my card along with a url and my email address.

tin book, paper

This is the gift I gave him. The pen holds the covers of the notepad together. It's very pretty green with a dragonfly on it.

the end of the line is lonely

The bathrooms at Alewife were out of service, so we had a bit of a quest to find a facility. Then we turned around and went back towards Central.

Now arriving

red lines

Burn Unit couldn't get enough of these red glowy lines suspended in air above the tracks here. They swayed when the trains went thru and were sort of haunting.

Giftee #4, selected by rongo rongo

This time I picked someone who was not reading a book and who is not in the same demographic categories as I am. However, he also didn't completely understand English. Since it was a little loud on the train, I wasn't really understanding the first part of our chat, and thought that he was declining to be gifted. Actually, I think he was trying to tell me nicely that he couldn't understand what I was saying. At the end, I just extended the gift to him, and he understood what I was doing, and we both smiled. This was fun, and also funny once I realized that neither the giftee or the gifter was comprehending what the other person was saying during the conversation.

Gifting, the universal language

Giftee #5, selected by rongo rongo

This giftee actually made eye contact with me across the aisle of the train while he was chatting with a friend. So I went over and conversed a little about where we were from and how the weather's been strange here lately. (Which is totally bizarre city public transportation behavior! You're supposed to ignore everyone.) Then I asked him if I could give him a gift. He agreed, accepted the gift, and asked what it was and why I had picked him. I told him it was a good luck charm and that I thought he had a nice smile. Success!

Worry beads

bunny dragon made a batch of worry beads, but we didn't have time to give them all away

Giftee #6, selected by Burn Unit

This guy said no and refused the gift. I said "I'm giving away my possessions." Shook his head. So I looked across the car at two young guys watching us intently. I said, "HI. I'm giving away some of my possessions. Do you want a gift? Do you have a girlfriend or something?" The one guy nodded. "I think she would enjoy these," and handed him the black velvety bag, then exited the train.

The rocks

His buddy said, "It's probably a bag of crack rocks." (I of course look fat, like most crackheads.) I said, "Oh no. Heh heh. A different kind of rock. Enjoy!" and they ran off up the stairs.