Angry Mike sighting last night in Powderhouse Park

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I had my first encounter with the Yelling Guy last night, crossing through Powderhouse Park. Someone had warned me about him by name sometime recently, but I couldn't remember it, though now I see from previous comm posts (thank you, tag "local characters"!) that it is Mike.

I didn't see or hear him until I rounded the corner on the path and came up behind him. He turned around, saw me, and that's when the yelling started. Mostly alternating sequences of "Get [the fuck] outta here!", mumble mumble, "... Whore!"

(Maybe it was the motorcycle jacket.)

... I understand that he's sometimes been physically aggressive with passersby, but in a sad way I got almost the opposite vibe: like I could walk right through where he was standing. Like there was no substance to him, no resistance, no personality, only a rogue burst of discorporated sound and fury fading into the night. Is this what it's like to see ghosts?

His nose was running. I felt sad. I passed him and walked on.

I will have to try addressing him by name next time. I hear that gives the user power over angry spirits.

Comments

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

I've heard that if you flash him the peace sign he gets happy.

[zaarwin-devolve.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm not 100% sure it was him but I rounded a corner once and saw a guy coming towards me who looked an awful lot like him. I flashed a peace sign and said, "Hey Mike." The guy seemed pleased.

Not that I fear Mike or whatever but the effort to get around the annoyance is minimal, so why not try?

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

The peace sign didn't work for me when he was following me and my three year old son home, getting verbally aggressive.

Nothing worked, in the end we just retreated into our house, and thankfully he didn't follow us onto the porch. My son was pretty upset and talked about it for days.

[spacegirlkate.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it does, but I flashed him a peace sign once when I was in a rush, and he cursed at me and whacked me -- not hard, just enough to startle me.

[elements.livejournal.com]

True. Also often just a genuine smile *at* him (not through him) will do it. Sometimes I think all he needs is to be acknowledged as existing by other human beings.