Riding a cab in New York City

The New York Times ran a story, April 10, 2013, "Sometimes, Riders Find a Cabby Worth Praising," and invited comments related to the theme. Among those published was one I submitted:

"I was in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, about ten years ago. My wife and I stopped at a restaurant for an early supper. We were the only customers until six men came in and sat at an adjoining table. One of them had recently been in New York City and was recounting the bad attitude of a cab driver. He went on and on and I thought he would have a heart attack. On the way out I stopped at his table and told him I was sorry he had had such a bad experience; that I was the Deputy Commissioner for hack licenses in NYC and when I got home we were going to work even harder on drivers with bad attitudes. I hope he would visit NYC again soon. As we got into our car my wife asked if I had too much beer for dinner. I shrugged and laughingly told her it would give him something pleasant to talk about and take his mind off the bad attitude driver."
(Complete blog here.)