Taxicab Depressions: Advice is Free if the Meter’s Running

It’s just like seeing a shrink, only at a base charge of $2.50.

For some reason, after a few cocktails, I feel the need to delve into the personal lives of others. I call this tactic an “h-to-h,” or heart-to-heart, whereupon after listening for all of two minutes, I find it appropriate to tell a person how wonderful they are and how they should never settle in life.

Without fail, this innocuous good deed always comes back to bite me in the ass. Something about the road to hell being paved with good intentions, I guess. If you’re not religious and live in the tri-state area, think of Times Square at rush hour when you need to get just beyond it. Yeah. Hell’s probably exactly like that.

One of my cab drivers this weekend and I had a great little h-to-h on the trek from SoHo to the UES after leaving a birthday party. I figure driving a taxi must be a real hit-or-miss form of employment, and so, with a pretty strong buzz going, I decided to ask who was the worst of this guy’s clientele. Read More »