Every day when I go home from work, I walk to the Union Square subway stop. And every day when I go home from work, I see a Subway Ninja. He claims to be Raising Awareness about Tibet (I think), but you look at the guy, and you can tell: he’s a ninja. Dressed in all black, always one layer of long-sleeved clothes no matter what the weather. And he’s always within ten steps of a subway entrance.

I only see the subway ninja for about fifteen seconds a day. It’s hard to imagine that he actually does anything besides buttonhole people to make them care about causes. He doesn’t go home. He doesn’t sleep. He lurks.