Rant #1,393: DadTV

 Yesterday, I spoke about my mother, and today, I am going to speak about my father.

My dad was on TV yesterday, and while it is certainly not the first time he has ever been on TV, it never gets old.

During my father's more than 50-year career as a cab driver, he has been interviewed on TV and radio many times about taxi driver issues. He has also been in a movie and a TV show.

I do think that they go to him because he can speak English, has a definite viewpoint on things, and, well, he is at he right place at the right time.

Such a thing happened yesterday.

Channel 5 News here interviewed him while he was in his cab at a cab stand about the lack of knowledge that many of today's cab drivers have about where things are in New York City.

With 50 years on the job, they knew they were going to get a good answer about this, and they got just what they wanted.

My father is an honest guy, and he said, yes, even he doesn't know where a lot of things are in Manhattan. This just duplicates what he has told me many times, that there are certain addresses that he simply does not know because he rarely, if ever, takes anyone to these places.

However, he has enough knowledge that he can figure it out using the number system that Manhattan uses. And if he still cannot find the place, he will ask the customer, because as they say, the customer is always right.

Today, a lot of cab drivers use GPSs to help them get around. My father doesn't know a GPS from a hole in the wall, so that won't work for him.

What he does know is about 99 percent of the addresses that customers ask him to take them to, so he is OK most of the time.

But for those few times that he simply does not know where the address is, he will find it out one way or the other.

You can access the segment at the Channel 5 news site at http://www.myfoxny.com/story/28295546/taxi-driver-exam-lacks-geography. It was both on TV and they also put it up on the Internet for even a wider audience to enjoy.

I always get a big kick out of seeing my father on TV. It was fun to see it again yesterday, and if any TV station wants to hire someone to talk about cab affairs in New York City--and believe me, there is plenty to talk about--he is the guy to do just that.

But that being said, he is beyond 50 years in the cab business, is good at what he does, and will never, ever retire.

So I am sure that this is not the final time that he is on TV in his capacity as a veteran New York City medallion cab driver, one who can show the young'uns a thing or two about driving a cab ... and he can show the public, too, that not all cab drivers are seemingly illiterate and clueless.

Good for him, and I hope he drives a cab forever, or for at least as long as he wants to.