Sweet Tweets

I'd like to thank you all for the messages of encouragement I have received on Twitter since I joined the network. I have also received a lot of messages from people saying how much money they are finding. I find it fascinating just how much cash is laying around out there as we sit watching GM, Chrysler and the State of California going bankrupt. Not for one minute am I suggesting their ills could be cured by making their employees go on a sidewalk cash hunt, plus that is the kind of competition I don't need! It is intriguing though knowing all this free cash exists, but is it too widespread and too small of a denomination to help anyone in these hard times?

When I have more time I will try to do some Sidewalker math and calculate how much cash I believe is on the sidewalk at any given moment in America, unless there is a reader out there who would like to do my dirty work for me and suggest a total with accompanying methodology?

In other news, things are rolling along quite nicely at Castle Sidewalker and between the four of us we have amassed $1.12 so far this month, far exceeding my hoped-for 2 cents per day average for June '09; and we still have 15 days to go. Our latest finds can be seen on my Cash Trail map in the side bar to the right. It looks like Hoboken, N.J. is the town that just keeps on giving!

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $11.27

10 Signs you'll know I've reached a $1,000,000

I'm feeling rather buoyant after my latest finds and I'm accelerating towards my goal, so just in case you are too lazy to check in on the blog every day to follow my progress (shame on you), I have made a convenient list for you to print out and tick below. The more of these things that happen, the closer to my goal of finding a $1,000,000 I will be. So just keep an eye out in the media and check these things off as they occur if you want to be an armchair Sidewalker follower. The day you have all ten checked off you can rest assured I have found my 100,000,000th penny.


□ 1. I will have more Twitter followers than Ashton Kutcher.

□ 2. You will see me on Oprah.

□ 3. There will be no more loose change on the floor of America.

□ 4. A loaf of bread will cost you $2,000,000.

□ 5. My latest Twitter follower will be the Great Great Great Grandchild of my first Twitter follower.

□ 6. I will be invited to participate in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here 57.

□ 7. The photographic rights to my retirement party will be sold to Hello! e-magazine.

□ 8. Sidewalker Jr. and Little Miss Sidewalker will have soda every night with dinner. (See Tumbleweed Times post)

□ 9. George Lucas will be suing me.

□ 10. You will be buying Sidewalker's Own brand lemonade at the supermarket.


-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $11.08

Flaming Pantaloons in D.C.!

The Fire Department of Washington D.C. was stretched to the limit yesterday as a firestorm of spontaneously combusting pants broke out on Capitol Hill. The Washington D.C. Fire Chief said, "We are not sure who started the inferno, but we have narrowed it down to two possible sources, Ken Lewis CEO of Bank of America (BAC.N) and Ben Bernanke the Federal Reserve Chairman". In a bizarre move the Fire Chief went on to give the responsibility of concluding the investigation of the conflagration to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. And these clowns want me to deposit the full $11.06 of the Sidewalker Fund in a bank!? Strange times indeed. The full story can be read here from CNN.

In other news, it gives me great pleasure to announce the first coin find by our very own Little Miss Sidewalker yesterday. I was in the middle of berating her for crawling around on the floor of a bar (before midnight) when she came up to me and spat a dime out of her mouth. Not the preferred Sidewalker method for retrieving a coin in that situation as I discussed in my post yesterday, but I have come to accept that Little Miss Sidewalker marches to the beat of her own drum. Ah the joys of fatherhood.

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $11.06

Shaking the money tree

Here is something to ponder. I think we all agree that money does not grow on trees. However in analyzing my found coin data I see a lot of my finds taking place at the base of trees. This can mean one of two things, either money does indeed grow on trees or the dog population of America is passing legal tender.

While I'm on the subject of ferreting around at the base of trees looking for coins I'd like to make one thing clear. As with all adventurous pursuits that have an element of risk, collecting street booty is not without its problems. When a company such as Odyssey Marine Exploration finds sunken treasure they have very sophisticated machinery to retrieve the treasure from a hostile human environment. This is exactly how we treat our hazardous finds at Castle Sidewalker. For example the repatriation of a coin at the base of a tree needs a technique that we like to call "hands off salvage". This technique involves a pickle grabber and a Ziploc bag, I think you can visualize the rest of the procedure...

Also I would like to thank Team Charity for the invite to their fund raising event on Friday, unfortunately I will not be able to attend. Details of the event to be held in The Shannon Lounge, Hoboken can be found here.

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $10.95

Tumbleweed Times

Whenever we find a quarter it is greeted with quite a fanfare here at Castle Sidewalker and a spontaneous party normally breaks out, not an outrageous party exactly, but just to give you an idea of the level of revelry Sidewalker Jr. and Little Miss Sidewalker might just get some soda with their gruel instead of the usual tap water.

Mrs. Sidewalker found a quarter today in the murky depths of a puddle (big time overnight rain in the area), at the base of a parking meter. I remember growing up, if a quarter was dropped the traffic would be stopped until all available hands had corralled the errant coin. These days it seems just the fact that it fell in a puddle precluded it from being picked up.

So as I proudly watched my kids quaffing soda tonight, it got me wondering how long it will be until we see dollar bills blowing down Main Street U.S.A. like tumbleweed?

Staycation update: Still stuck in The Netherlands!

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $10.92