no longer strangers, talking to strangers
(i had one of these campbell's soup things as a kid. i need to get another one for reasons mentioned below)
last night i found myself in a cab with the girl i did not initially call back, but now had made a habit of calling. we shared one of those rare and extremely entertaining experiences of getting a kick ass cab driver who is super talkative, and clearly equal parts brilliant and insane.
we shook hands by the time we were done, introductions all around:
tim? hussein.
hussein? tim.
hussein? abby.
abby? hussein.
and it's kind of strange that we did that, because we spent nearly the whole ride -- and 5 minutes pulled over in brooklyn heights w/ the meter off -- talking about mugging and getting robbed. when after 5 years in New York, i found myself involved in the most poorly executed attempt ever to jump a guy in a suit with his arms full, it occurred to me that maybe i was about due. once in five years?! seems reasonable, almost. understandably, others have not shared this viewpoint.
in the cab last night, though, i knew hussein and i could be pals. in our new friend's words, having your money taken by threat of force is simply "just another transaction," and one to which someone should almost gleefully submit. "next time," he tells me, "tell him to have a nice day! Is just transaction, no worry!"after which, abby asks, if perhaps he had ever been --- "yes, of course, several times," he replies cheerily, before the question's even out. we asked him to list them, and he was happy to oblige. both in his cab and out - once for $60 or so bucks, once for less than a dollar....a total of 4 or so times.
he then turns into a rhetorical powerhouse, and suggests that people get money taken from them all the time -- from people they know. why don't we have a problem with that, he asks? his kids and nephews and everyone around him, always asking for his money, taking his money. it is a small point, but he has made one.
from Pakistan, hussein's lived in New York for 15 or so years. hope to run into him again, i think to myself. wait a minute -- 15 years?! 4 times?! getting out of the cab, abby and i do the math and it checks out. if anything, i've gotten off a bit easy so far.
last night i found myself in a cab with the girl i did not initially call back, but now had made a habit of calling. we shared one of those rare and extremely entertaining experiences of getting a kick ass cab driver who is super talkative, and clearly equal parts brilliant and insane.
we shook hands by the time we were done, introductions all around:
tim? hussein.
hussein? tim.
hussein? abby.
abby? hussein.
and it's kind of strange that we did that, because we spent nearly the whole ride -- and 5 minutes pulled over in brooklyn heights w/ the meter off -- talking about mugging and getting robbed. when after 5 years in New York, i found myself involved in the most poorly executed attempt ever to jump a guy in a suit with his arms full, it occurred to me that maybe i was about due. once in five years?! seems reasonable, almost. understandably, others have not shared this viewpoint.
in the cab last night, though, i knew hussein and i could be pals. in our new friend's words, having your money taken by threat of force is simply "just another transaction," and one to which someone should almost gleefully submit. "next time," he tells me, "tell him to have a nice day! Is just transaction, no worry!"after which, abby asks, if perhaps he had ever been --- "yes, of course, several times," he replies cheerily, before the question's even out. we asked him to list them, and he was happy to oblige. both in his cab and out - once for $60 or so bucks, once for less than a dollar....a total of 4 or so times.
he then turns into a rhetorical powerhouse, and suggests that people get money taken from them all the time -- from people they know. why don't we have a problem with that, he asks? his kids and nephews and everyone around him, always asking for his money, taking his money. it is a small point, but he has made one.
from Pakistan, hussein's lived in New York for 15 or so years. hope to run into him again, i think to myself. wait a minute -- 15 years?! 4 times?! getting out of the cab, abby and i do the math and it checks out. if anything, i've gotten off a bit easy so far.
posted by quickstuff at 11.3.05
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