Ok ok ok ok ok ok .
I was nearly getting beheaded on the subway by the Grizzly Adams-sized backpack being wielded by a tall, outdoorsy-looking tourist (why is he in NYC, do you think?).
Then I take a cab and after repeatedly asking the cab driver not to talk on his cell phone, because my head was pounding (concussion?), and having him slam the divider shut, I got angry. I opened the divider and told him that as a matter of law, he had to stop talking on the phone. He denied he was talking on the phone. Maybe he was talking to his demons, but I am not a shrink. He started speeding to my destination because he was angry at me. I yelled “Stop!!” followed by a heart-felt “WHAATTT IS WRONG WITH YOU???”
He called me a whore. Ok, no one has ever called me a whore (or at least not in such a dismissive, contemptuous tone). I started yelling that he needs to learn how to drive, etc., but no cursing. I was being as polite as possible under the circumstances. He jerked the car forward and started to call me things related to my womanhood in a very condescending way. Such denigration of women was so foreign to me that I was a little gobsmacked and so I didn’t end up denting the car.
I believe that people can find common ground, but right then I wanted to haul him over to the police and have him stripped of his hack license (assuming he had one). I think I would still want to kick him you-know-where even when I calm down.
I lodged a complaint with the Taxi and Limousine Commission. I am ready to appear at the hearing.