I'm giving mad props to cab No. 1000 because it got me out of a jam on a traffic-packed Wednesday after a mini BART meltdown. (Why has BART had so many problems recently?) It took me quite a while to hail a cab, which I found puzzling because it was rush hour in the Financial District, but when my driver came, he was no nonsense and awesome.\r
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I always want cab drivers to be like Alex Rieger or Elaine Nardo or even Louie De Palma picking up a random shift but definitely not like Bobby Wheeler or Reverend Jim. Tony Banta? I don't know whether I could handle him. Anyway, they're never like any of those awesome characters. SF cabbies are much better than their other-city counterparts, but there are still louses among them.\r
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The guy driving No 1000? Not a louse at all, and when I asked him to drive to Potrero Hill in a particular way, he did so. He asked about a couple of different alternatives while we were going (because there was a lot of traffic), but he didn't ask after he had made a move, and I could tell he actually did want to get me there quickly rather than just keep the meter running. A nice tip for him, and a nice review for Yellow Cab--at least until the next John Burns gets lost. But even if he did, he'd probably let me stay at his apartment? He's just too nice, that John Burns, for a cabbie and for a character on a TV show that already had two nice guys
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