Sunday, October 31, 2004

Taxi Driver(s)

Recently I've had the (subsidized) opportunity to take a number of taxis from downtown DC to Georgetown *shudder* and back again. I've observed that Defensive Driving is not a required subject in whatever coursework is necessary to earn a taxi license. Maybe it's just me getting old, but 60mph heading down K Street in the middle of the afternoon seems a bit much.

I know some of you out there are saying: "But Oh Mighty Caesar, when you were seventeen you wound up in a ditch crawling through broken glass to get away from the torn wreckage that was your motor vehicle...Are you really qualified to be casting stones when it comes to this particular subject?" The answer is probably not, but that has certainly never stopped me before.

And if you ever speak to Our Imperial Majesty like that again I swear to Me that it will be the last thing you ever do.

There also tend to be two types of cabbies: gregarious or taciturn. The gregarious ones can be quite informative: I was told that someone like me (read: as white as the day is long) probably shouldn't wander around Kingston, Jamaica, by myself, but if I know a Jamaican and went with him/her, there'd be no problems. So now you know.

And knowing is half the battle.



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But there was one problem. The Zippo was allllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way over there, and you were occupied alllllllllllllllllllll the way over here.

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