I'm in a taxi as I type this. My driver (Abdul Hameed, according to his hack license) responded to my asking to go to one of Manhattan's top hospitals with "What? Where's that?" Thinking it would help, I repeated the name. No luck.
So I told him the address, but how do they let this guy on the road without the basics? What if I didn't know the address and I were going there to meet my doctor for medical reasons?
3 comments:
A few years ago I was on the UWS and found myself running late for a show at the Metropolitan Opera. I hopped in a cab and said, "Lincoln Center, please." The cab driver then hung a left and started cutting across Central Park. I was like, "Hey, where are you going?" He said, "Lincoln Center...5th Avenue in the 50s." I was like, "No, numbnuts, that's Rockefeller Center." Argh. My mom was right, never trust a man with b.o.
Last time I took a cab I was in Columbus Ohio visiting my mother. I calle dhte cab co. and asked for a cab, said I was going to the airport. 30 mins went by, no cab, I called them back. The same lady answered the phone adn said "You didnt state yur desitantion adn cabbies do not like to take fares when they do not knw where they are going" DUH, shit for brains, I SAID AIRPORT. I called another cab company and took the one that came first. I think all cabbies ought to get an city orientation if they are new in town, and shoud drive around with another cabbie to get the ins and outs.
I'm a New Yorker by birth and can usually deal with anything the city throws at me but my scariest moment was when two cabbies including mine, both from the Domenican and apparently deadly rivals, engaged in a heart-stopping drag race cum game of chicken up West End Ave.
But here's another story--I left my reading glasses in a cab (also, like Andy) going to MET at Lincoln Center and two days later I got an email from the cab company that my Egyptian driver had found them, traced me from some notes in the glasses case, and would send them to me as soon as I got in touch with my address. They gave me his cell phone number and I called.
He answered the phone, I said "Your company tells me you have my glasses." He replied, "Yes effendi, Lincoln Center, yes?" I was floored. My glasses arrived three days later, beautifully and safely wrapped. I used the return address to send back a thank you note and gift.
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