Hair Salons

JPennant: The entry I had in mind for tonite.. frankly sux
JPennant: mind if I edit this and use the part about the cabs?
k12: ok
JPennant: Otherwise, I gotta talk about my walk to go get ice cream in Bayonne :-)
k12: lol
JPennant: and post pictures of the "Curl Up & Dye" hair salon
k12: rofl
k12: omg! I love that!
JPennant: heheh
k12: you know, I think that's gonna be my next project...
JPennant: wassat? :-)
k12: a compendium of creatively bizarre biz names
JPennant: like "US Hair Force"? :-\
JPennant: Oy
k12: lol
k12: curl up and dye is H ILARIOUS
JPennant: Ido have a picture of it. :-)
k12: I must see it, of course
JPennant: okie
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Cabs

JPennant: Thats why I hadda start the journal.. too many things happening
JPennant: The definitive moment was a cab ride with a german cabbie named Karl.
JPennant: It wasnt what he said
JPennant: It was how he drove
k12: lol
JPennant: THIS guy could drive
JPennant: but not your normal every day "smooth, make it look easy" driving
JPennant: He was PRECISE in everything he did.
JPennant: There's no doubt. He was TRAINED to drive like that.
k12: the German apprenticeship system?
JPennant: uh-uh. This was more security agency/fbi professional skillz.
JPennant: And this is how I came up with driving with the East German ex-STASI agent named Karl, driving a New York hack. I couldnt make that shit up.

JPennant: I wish I had acted upon writing down the conversations with cabbies Ive had over the years
k12: yea...somebody did that
JPennant: I shouldve
k12: like lessons learned from cabbies
k12: or the wisdom of cabbies
k12: published it as a little book
JPennant: more like having your perspective broadened, yanno?
k12: ya
JPennant: Driving from Manhattan to Brooklyn, you had time.
k12: one cabbie had his entire cab papered in biblical verses...that was a trip
JPennant: whoa
k12: it was the cult cab
JPennant: good god
JPennant: in philly, itsa bunch of cab companies?
k12: yea
JPennant: ok
k12: with one or two huge central dispatchers
JPennant: yeh, In manhattan - most cabs look the same
k12: not here
JPennant: outside Manhattan, most are Lincoln Town Cars
k12: cripes...must be nice
JPennant: Ehhhhh....Sometimes :-)
k12: we have beat up discarded NYC police cars
JPennant: oy vey
k12: most of our cabs are ugly and odious
JPennant: here, yellow cabs are required to be replaced after 2 years
k12: and where do you think they go?
JPennant: aha
k12: Philly
JPennant: all our chevy caprices went to philly eh :-)
k12: fer sure
JPennant: theyre almost all Crown Vics here now

Funkin Cabs

k12: two things drive me up the wall...
k12: one is getting into a cab with 20 flavored air freshners swinging in the wind
k12: instant headache
JPennant: hoho
JPennant: I got one better
k12: the other is...I don't know how to put this delicately
JPennant: Lemme say it
k12: k
JPennant: actually itsa tie between
JPennant: Cabbie having a pungent middle eastern dinner AND farting
JPennant: or
k12: lol
JPennant: and this happens primarily on saturday nights, early sunday mornings
JPennant: a combination of stale: stale sweat, rank perfume, rancid liquor and vomit
JPennant: you never want to smell those combinations ever again.
k12: ewwwww...both of those are awful indeed but not my pet peeve
JPennant: whats yours?
k12: mine is acute body odor...getting into a hot cab with a driver who doesn't wear an antipersperant
k12: ugh
JPennant: oh...
k12: in my experience, this has occurred only with one group of drivers
k12: that is wretched
JPennant: You know
k12: I know we all get a little ripe in the summer but this is like NO deodorant
JPennant: here, you might get a few funky ones
JPennant: but its not usually a problem.
JPennant: I think because New Yorkers will TELL them to go bathe
k12: I was in a cab once that almost made me ill...the smell was so acrid, my eyes were watering even with the window down
JPennant: and leave the cab
k12: I was just gonna say...I'm too polite to say STOP I'm getting out
k12: (my daughter) would have NO prob with that
JPennant: puhlease
JPennant: youre spending money for the cab
k12: and she would tell them to bathe
k12: I know!
JPennant: she would do well here
k12: oh yea
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Five Dollars

JPennant: New Yorkers only act like they dont notice anything
JPennant: They are VERY aware.
k12: hyper aware. have to be.
JPennant: good term. very much so.
JPennant: tell you a story
k12: good...I'm all eyes
JPennant: when I was working in wall street

JPennant: I went to a favorite street vendor to buy christmas gifts for folk in the office
JPennant: but my vendor wasnt at his table
JPennant: so the guy wouldnt deal like the other normal guy would.. and didnt know the prices on the items
JPennant: so Im vainly trying to get prices
k12: oy
JPennant: and I go "How much is THIS?"
JPennant: and then from around me.. guys passing by go
JPennant: "ITS FIVE DOLLAHS"
JPennant: "EVERYTHING IN NEW YORK IS FIVE DOLLAHS"
k12: LOL
JPennant: I swear it was the funniest thing
JPennant: 10 guys all goin "ITS FIVE DOLLAHS"
JPennant: New York is like that
k12: lolol
k12: that's hilarious
JPennant: Everybody's got an opinion :-)
k12: oh yea...here too
JPennant: And it WAS five dollars :-)
k12: LOL
k12: too funny