As I’ve written about in the past, people tend to tell me things; taxi drivers in particular. This morning, for example, on the way back home from brunch in Chinatown, one told me this:

At about 5:00 in the morning, a young woman flagged him down at the corner of 56th and 7th.

“Where to?” he asked.

“56th and 7th,” she replied.

As he tried to point out that they were already at 56th and 7th, it became quickly clear that the woman was exceedingly, belligerently drunk. So, after a few minutes of slurred excoriation, the driver shrugged and told her to buckle up. He drove a block down, a block West, a block up, and a block back East – a perfect one block loop.

“Which corner?” he asked.

“Near left,” she replied. The exact same one on which he had just found her.

The fare was the morning minimum: $3. She handed him a $10.

“Keep the change,” she said, “for getting me here so quickly.”