Sunday, March 23, 2008

Cab Ride

I took a Cab to the office last week.It was the company I usually use but this driver I had never had before.At first I thought he was Russian.He had thick blond hair and he brought to mind llya Kuryakin from"The Man From Uncle"He was a talkative cabbie and turned out to be from Sweden.Said he was also an actor which I think most cab drivers in Los Angeles claim to be.We started chatting about Sweden and I mentioned how Denmark and Sweden were once Imperial powers in the past and I told him about the wonderful novels of Icelandic Author Halldor Laxness about his countries misery at the hands of Denmark.He'd never heard of him but then I said there was a series by George Macdonald Fraser with a character named "Flashman" who is a scoundrel but who always comes out looking like a hero in this series of historical novels.He cut in right away that "I have 9 of those novels,I love Flashman"I told him that the second one involved him impersonating a Danish Prince while being blackmailed by Bismark and a fan dancer named Lola Montez who actually existed and is buried in NYCity and the theft of the Crown Jewels and he said he had not read that one but talked about how he had taken in much history reading Flashman.I have heard that from others and it's why I love the Flashman series besides the fact they are very funny while being bawdy and teaching history at the same time in a way that sticks.So he was excited about reading that Flashman novel.It's not often one gets a Cabbie in Los Angeles that is a big book fan so it was fun to talk to this guy.

No comments: