Sam I am

Sports Illustrated is roughly divided into two major division: editorial and publishing. Or, as they are known in the trade, edit and pub. Or, as they are known at Time Inc., church and state. Basically, the idea of the two distinct divisions is that you keep the editorial and publishing sides fairly separate so that advertising would not unduly influence the editorial content. My department, technology, works for both the editorial and publishing sides. This wasn’t always the case; there used to be two technology departments for each magazine. And another set of technology departments for the core Time Inc. groups. But that’s like having different janitorial staffs for each magazine division. It was a little nutty.

One of the major undertakings of Sports Illustrated at the Olympic Games in Athens is the publishing division’s hospitality program. The idea behind the hospitality program is to provide guests with dream vacations to major sporting events. Guests do not have to worry about anything on these programs. All of their tickets, meals, and rooms are set up before they ever arrive in Athens. It’s a really nice vacation, and the pub side does a great job of making people happy.

One event of the hospitality program is the SI party. Keep in mind that it is part of the dream vacation, so there is an open bar, good food, and scenic settings. Athletes are invited to have a good time, and they get to mingle with the guests.

I went to one of these parties on Saturday night. I got there after work at around 1 am, but had a great time. Almost all of the events at the Olympics were completed, so there were many athletes in attendance in the party. I met a couple of quite famous athletes and really enjoyed myself. Athletes are generally in excellent shape, and there is nothing quite like being in a party full of happy dancing healthy people. There was very little smoking and a lot of dancing.

A party without Australian athletes dancing on the bar just isn’t a party.

The DJ was quite good. He changed musical styles quite a bit, and mixed in different albums from around the world. A good call considering that many people at the party were not from the US or Europe.

A woman dressed in mirrors danced to a techno beat while lasers shot at her.

I didn’t get home until 7:30 am; I’m still bit tired right now. It was a good party.

I have Google supplying advertisements to my blog now. It’s very exciting. Right now, I see an advertisement for backgammon supplies and one for Greek web developers. I don’t know why I have the backgammon advertisement. I clicked on it, thinking the site may also have games besides backgammon. But it doesn’t. It is a site dedicated to backgammon.

Phil is ready to go back to New York.

In around 90 minutes, I get back on a plane to Athens. I should arrive there in the early afternoon. I extended my stay in Athens by a day so that I will be able to see some of the sites. I would feel like an ass if I went to Athens and didn’t visit the Parthenon.

The technical side of work has been going quite well. I’m hoping that the last few days of events go smoothly. Then, all that is left is packing up all of the gear. 19 skids of equipment going 4,934 miles. No problem.

I had a very strange taxi experience today, and for the second time ever, I called in a complaint to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

If you don’t live in New York City, you might not be familiar with the laws and protocols surrounding taxis. Taxis you can hail on the street are painted yellow. They are ubiquitous everywhere in central Manhattan, and you can hail them any time, day or night. You can’t call for a yellow cab; if you want to call for a cab, you have to call a car service.

Tonight, I saw a friend of mine before she flew away. (Her flight is at 6:30 am tomorrow morning!) I went to the street to hail a cab at around 10:45 pm. A cab pulled up and asked me where I was going. This in itself was a little annoying–cabs are required to take you anywhere in New York City. They can’t ask, and then decide whether or not to take you.

I told the driver that I was going to Brooklyn Heights, and that he had to take the Manhattan Bridge. This is a legitimate request, and, given the street that I live on, the best way to get to my apartment. Of course, if the driver said something like, “the bridge has 30 minute delays,” I might say we could take the Brooklyn Bridge, but I would want to see the delays myself. Drivers like to take the Brooklyn Bridge more because it has less stop-and-go traffic, but it also takes longer and has a higher fare. If you try to get to my apartment from the Brooklyn Bridge, you spend an extra 15 minutes getting spun around in Brooklyn Heights. TLC rules also require that a cab take the route you want to your destination.

The driver said he would not take me over the Manhattan Bridge because of the lights. I told him to pull over and let me out. I opened the door, and said that I would be filing a complaint with the TLC. This is where it started to get weird. The driver started to argue with me. He told me that he would take me, and that I couldn’t get out of his cab. With the door open, he tried to drive, but I told him I was getting out. Then, after I got out, he rushed to the pay phone, called someone on the phone, and indicated that I should talk to the person on the phone. I simply started to write down his license number and hail another cab.

Here is where it got really weird. The license number of a taxi is in six different places: on the sides of the cab, on both license plates, on a lighted sign on top of the cab, and on a license behind the drivers head. The license number is four digits. It is always four digits. Heck, this is what it says on the TLC web site. This license number was six digits. The license plate sort of looked like that, but I don’t think it was limited to six digits. The lighted sign on the cab was unreadable. Instead of dawdling, I wrote down the number and jumped in the next cab.

The first cab driver tried to get my cab to stop, but the new cab just drove me home. This was a good thing. In hindsight, I could have also taken some pictures of the cab with my camera, but I think I did the best thing in getting away from there as fast as possible.

On the way home, I filed a complaint with the TLC. I will definitely show up for a hearing if there is one. However, the license number is sketchy enough that I am going to give the local police precinct in Midtown a call as well. It could be really dangerous if someone is posing as a cab driver.

Followup: I called the Midtown North Precinct and explained that I was concerned about the license number. The police officer asked me the medallion number, and I read it off to him. He told me not to worry, but that it was a new series of license numbers that the TLC was using. It definitely set my mind at ease. It is was good to find out that the cab driver was simply an ass rather than an out-and-out crook.