R-E-S-P-E-C-T

One of the advantages of where I live is its proximity to three different subway lines. It's easy to get to work and it's easy to get anywhere in the city quickly, so I rarely take taxis.

Recently I dropped my nephew off at Penn Station before I was supposed to meet a friend on the upper east side. I was on the west side in midtown and had to go all the way across town and then way north. Determined to use public transportation, I took a crosstown bus and then found myself on the right side of town but about 50 blocks from where I needed to be. I bit the bullet and haled a cab.

The ride was uneventful until we got up into the 80s. As we slowed down I watched a woman wade into the street and into traffic to try to hale down a cab. The cab driver spoke to me:

Driver: "You see that? People in this country have no respect for cabdrivers. I am from Brazil. I have driven a cab in many countries all over the world. Here, people have no respect."
Paully: "Yeah. Well. Hmmm."
Driver: "Do you know sometimes on rainy nights when we take cab out of service people will throw themselves on the hood of our cabs?"
Paully: "Huh. I guess that doesn't surprise me."
Driver: "That would never happen in Brazil. You know why? In Brazil we all carried guns. If someone throw himself on the hood of your car, you shoot him and people learn not to do these things."
Paully: "Well, you can let me off here on the right ...."
Driver: "You think people would make you drive to the Bronx or Brooklyn and then not pay if they knew I had a gun?"
Paully: "No.... uh, it's just not right."
Driver: "They don't let you carry guns here. How do you teach respect?!"
Paully: "Well, if you can just give four dollars back ..."

The driver seemed to want to keep talking to me. But I gave him a big tip and jumped out of the cab. I haven't been in one since.

The other night I emerged from having drinks with a friend at about 1 o'clock in the morning and refused to take a cab. I just needed to walk about 8 blocks north and then jump on the 7 train across town. I guess it was about 5 minutes into my subway ride when I realized that I had gotten on the train in the wrong direction and was headed to Queens. Maybe I'm taking this aversion to cabs thing a little far.