Better listen to these words I say
Urban transport's no walk in the park
Taxi drivers can be good or bad
They can rob you blind, just for a lark
Expectations of them are quite high
Rude and nasty clients make demands
Better get your act together, lads
Or you'll find yourself in the bad lands
Yellow cabs - De Niro understands
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Author Notes
Today's word: butterboy (n.) a new or trainee taxicab driver; a rookie.
My book says the term refers to a newly qualified driver because he takes the "butter", or earnings, from other drivers. Another site I happened across says the term comes from the description of young drivers as "but a boy". To my surprise, when I Googled the term, I discovered butterboy appears to have acquired a more recent meaning, which I don't see any need to go into here.
* The "De Niro" reference is to the 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster and Cybill Shepherd.
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
Thanks for reading.
Image: public domain, see the following link for details:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taxi_driver_movieposter.jpg
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