Sunday, August 24, 2008

Driver games: Zach and Slingblade

We've had some terrific radio fights between Zach and Sunshine (who has been renamed Mr. Congeniality, and sometimes Slingblade). Usually we let Slingblade bellow and cause trouble without attempting to counter him. He's one of those people that has to be handled delicately because, well, he's a psycho cab driver and we know he's done time for assault in the past. Nobody wants to push him too far. Enter Zach, our young driver who doesn't give a damn.

Slingblade jumped the line of drivers trying to reach dispatch and Zach was on him:

    Zach: I called first.

    Slingblade: Doesn't matter. It's who she heard first.

    Zach: Respect the call-in order.

    Slingblade: You haven't worked here very long, let us handle it.

Now somebody was stepping on him, keying the mic when he spoke. It may have been Zach, but it could have been anybody. In the middle of this entertainment, somebody held down their mic and played the theme song from the movie Rocky.

    Slingblade: Stop cutting me off, Zach.

    Zach: Get ahold of yourself.

    Slingblade: No, you get ahold of yourself.

That blew over in a few minutes. Later that night I got into the mix, which I usually try to avoid. Slingblade yelled at somebody on the radio, and I mimicked Zach's voice: "Get ahold of yourself."

    Slingblade: Only queers do that. You're a queer, aren't you, Zach? You like to get ahold of yourself?

I laughed so hard I almost had to pull over. I had drunks in the car, and they were amused at the exchange. Later on a cab stand I jokingly apologized to Zach. He said: "Funny, I never knew I was 'queer'."

We all speculated on who had brilliantly played the Rocky theme song, but nobody would admit to it. Just having the song and then being quick enough to queue it up and play it during the radio fight was fantastic. Several days later we're still talking about it. I wonder which smug bastard is inwardly gloating at this?

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