Word: taxis
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...natives were restless, a visitor would never know it from the faces of the jolly, giggling, black taxi drivers, who clustered outside all the hotels, clamoring for attention when a potential passenger strode out to the street. The statistics proved that 60,000 were jobless in Leopoldville; yet carefree Africans drank the local Primus or Polar beer until all hours at the neighborhood taverns...
...humor and insight. All situation comedy is clockwork; what matters is who makes the clock. Like Jean Kerr, the heroine is a compulsive wisecracker: years ago, when her husband made his first tentative pass, she told him, "Let's not start something we can't finish in a taxi on 44th Street." Like Jean Kerr, another character is a fast shuffler of cliches: his recent de parture from Hollywood, explains the aging matinee idol, was an example of "the sinking ship leaving the rats." Like Jean Kerr, a third character is full of electric shock: "A lawyer," he says...
...Tall. Buntin's minicab, and others like it, are pitted against 6,600 time-tested dinosaurs of the London taxi world. What arouses the ire of the traditional cabbies is that minicabs are operating without taxi licenses and thus can ignore the stringent regulations that made a London cab 1) expensive to build and 2) one of the world's ugliest but most comfortable vehicles. Some of the regulations, as laid down in the ancient Metropolitan Carriage Act of 1869: each cab must be 14 ft. 11 7/16 in. long, big enough to seat five persons comfortably, high...
...down by passengers; the driver will then hand his car phone to the customer and ask him to place his order with the dispatcher at headquarters, who will solemnly repeat it to the driver. Since the average minicab costs only half the price of a regulation-bound old-style taxi, their fares run about 14% cheaper...
Matilda's Trunk. The Battle of Belgrave Square proved a victory of sorts for the minicabs' cause. The spectacle of big taxis ganging up on a tiny minicab aroused Londoners' traditional sympathy for the underdog, as well as delight at the prospect of cheaper fares. Almost every one had a story about a rude old-style cabby who took him to his destination the long way round, or short-changed him, or passively watched as dear old Aunt Matilda wrestled with her steamer trunk. "That's the public for you," lamented a veteran cabby...