Cab #843

Date Taken: 3/2/07
From: Roscoe Village
To: Lincoln Square

The Cab: Nothing fancy; plain and simple vinyl seating and a standard-issue driver shield, albeit fully open. A bit grubby, perhaps, but mostly due to salt transference.

The Driver: An unwavering devotion to the dulcet tones of WBBM-AM 780 can say any number of things about a person. Perhaps this is someone who needs a constant flow of information to satiate a ravenous intellect. Maybe the listener just really, really likes traffic and weather on the 8s. In the case of Driver #843, it's probably a little of both.

A true master of all potentialities, he was able to anticipate the wayward lunge of an evening dog walker half a block away. Was deferential but not shy in suggesting a shortcut that was actually a longcut but was quicker than the direct route. Risky, but when you know the roads as well as this guy does, you can pull it off. A constant patter of location- and route-related conversation proved beyond all doubt this guy's status as human Chicago gazetteer. Most important, he seemed to revel in his encyclopedic knowledge of the city's streets. It ain't heavy; it's his genius.

The Driving: Huh. Wow. Huh and wow. It's difficult to know how to respond to a brazen attempt to overtake another car on a narrow two-way street with oncoming traffic looming and two speed bumps in the road. Daring, a little crazy, ultimately kind of pointless, and oddly unsettling. Come to think of it, that pretty well describes the whole ride.

Overall rating: 4 extended arms

- Natasha Julius

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