NYC taxi photo: Sunday 10/28

Ride #1:

It was before I took these pictures that some adventure had already come and passed. My first ride of the day were four guys in halloween attire. The tallest wore only jockey underwear with padding in all the right places, a chunkier guy wore a football jersey and a golden crown with plastic jewels, while an average person wore an average blazer perhaps impersonating an average professor. The fourth wore nothing memorable.

The man with the football jersey and the crown got in the front and told me some central park address, but then he got up placing one foot on the street and one in the cab. He stood there for about 5 minutes taunting some goombas on the corner who were making fun of them. I got sick of this and turned the meter on early, something I don't usually do. The taunted bunch came up to the cab and proceeded to slam the door into football king's face several times nearly breaking his plastic crown, I took great offense to this. How insulting for eight schmucks combined to be responsible for the de-flowering of my door. I decided to hop out of the cab, I tossed my camera to football king and shouted at the preppy hoodlums.

"DON'T FUCKIN' MESS WITH THE TAXI CAB!" I shouted in a voice I hadn't used in years.

"But they were saying (____) to us!" Was his reply as he pointed to the culprits in the cab.

I responded quickly, "Is that my problem!" I noticed now that everyone on the street was looking at the situation.

"Get back in your cab, cabbie," another of the preppies said.

I thought that was a good idea, so I got back in and drove off. We proceeded west a few small blocks. After the three of them got over the shock of what just happened, the football king thanked me for sticking up for him. But then the average professor noticed one of them was missing. Mr. underwear was gone, and none of us remembered him leaving the cab. I dropped off the average professor and circled around a few blocks to find the corner where I picked them up. We eventually found the average professor again, but Mr. underwear, wasn't found. They asked to go to Brooklyn right on the other side of the bridge, and tipped me well when we got there.

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Ride #2 was only two car lengths ahead and he requested Queens. He found a straw hat left by the last ride, and I told him to leave it on the curb. Being that was Halloween pre-weekend, people tended to wear garbage anyway. He was really pleasant company, He was totally sober, and he munched on a sandwich as we travelled through Brooklyn. Good tip.

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Ride #3 I picked up in Queens on my way back to Manhattan, which was where he was going. I couldn't believe my luck. Usually it takes me more than ten minutes to find another ride. And to find outer borough rides into Manhattan is pretty special.

9 selected shots from 10/28. Click each image to enlarge.

Chinatown