second -- I'm never going to be happy to be solicited for money on the street, but if you start your salutation "hey babe" your chances of getting any change out of me just slipped from slim to never.
third -- Stephen Jay Gould died today. Not that as a fair-to-middling student from a podunk university I ever had a snowball's chance in hell of interacting with him on a professional level; nevertheless he was kind of my patron saint in college. I missed seeing him when he was in town speaking last, to my now eternal regret...