“Yikes!” I yelped, pounding the brakes with my clunky snow boot. Two feet beyond my front fender, a short, blonde woman was staring straight at me, grinning and laughing wildly. Her method of taxi-hailing was to place herself in front of a moving cab and execute jumping jacks. It worked.

“C’mon, boys,” she called to two men standing on the sidewalk in front of the Rusty Scuffer. “Let’s do it!”... Read more

"Do you smoke, man?" The young man sitting beside me wasn't taking a sociological survey, nor was he merely curious about his cab driver's personal habits. He asked the question because, undoubtedly, he and his roommate in the back seat wanted to smoke in the cab on the ride back to their Northgate apartment. I'm asked this question about five times a night.

"Are we talkin' cigs or marijuana?" I replied.... Read more

There’s that long stretch after the foliage has its final say. Winter is lurking behind every wind-swept downtown building, like a growling polar bear in the distance.

Now it’s early January, and the bear has arrived. I’m idling on a Thursday night at a downtown taxi stand. There’s no shutting it down to save gas anymore; winter nights demand a non-stop purring heater.... Read more