Michael Byrne In Hell: San Francisco 666
SAN Francisco cabbie Michael Byrne claims his taxi medallion is making life hell. Byrne (pronounced burn) drives a cab with the number 666.According to The New York Times, legend has it that a few years ago–on a Good Friday, no less–cab no. 666 burst into flames for no apparent reason. The fire “wrecked the car but left the offending medallion untouched.”
Byrne says the Number of the Beast has only brought bad luck since it was assigned to him last year.
So he applied to the San Francisco taxi commission to replace the medallion with a less Satanic number: 1307.
At a half-hour hearing on Tuesday, taxi commission President Paul Gillespie, who had driven with the offending medallion in the past, seemed sympathetic. “People do bring a lot of bad energy in the cab, and if people want to talk about the number, then the driver has to talk about it,” he said.
But unfortunately for Byrne others were unmoved.
Thomas George-Williams, the head of the cab drivers union, appeared before the board with little red horns affixed to his head. “How dare you take Lucifer’s number away,” he said. “This is a serious issue.”
Meanwhile, commissioner Patricia Breslin wanted to know: “Where does it end?”
“I lived at a residence numbered 666, and I did not go over to the dark side,” she said.
At the end of the debate, the commissioners voted 5-1 to keep the medallion, leaving Byrne in purgatory and City Hall reporters to mull over the implications.
“When it was all over,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “the keenest minds at City Hall observed that the commission had discussed the matter for exactly 24 minutes (2 plus 4 equals 6) on the 24th of the month (2 plus 4 equals 6) in a meeting that began at half past 6 o’clock.”
Posted: 26th, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comments (27) | TrackBack | Permalink
