Chicago Taxi Cabs

I saw something today that made me take pause and wonder what the chances were, on any ordinary day in Chicago, that a person would see the same thing I saw. It's purely a numbers game but it really caught my eye and made the analytic in me take note and caused my fellow pedestrians to steer clear of me as the smoke caused by the gears turning in my mind came pouring out of my head. What was it? I saw the number 1 taxi cab on W Jackson Blvd, a block west of the Chicago Board of Trade. What's so special about that? Absolutely nothing -- except that as I started paying closer attention to the cabs I saw numbers as high as 4962 on the cabs. (Each cab has its own medallion, the license to operate so to speak, and a unique number to identify it from the thousands of other cabs in Chicago. These numbers are unique to all cabs in the city so, in other words, although there may be 30 odd cab companies, there is only one number 1 cab in all of Chicago.) Pretty interesting. But then, the reality set in; what's so neat about it? Why does the number one have some greater expectation or importance than number 478, 2921, or 4962? Why did this one, this solitary cab, cause me to stop whatever was bumping about in my head (Walker Percy's 'The Moviegoer', if you must know) and think, 'Hey, this is pretty cool"? I don't know.

The everyday walk
Made somewhat exciting when
I saw that taxi.