A first for everything

I experienced something today that I had never before seen in Basel: a man playing the accordian on a tram! I'm hoping this is not the start of a new trend. Even though you often see accordian-players on public transportation in other European cities (certainly London and Paris and Madrid), I can't remember ever hearing of it here in Basel! I do not find it charming, and, as Kirk has often said, I'd rather pay them money to STOP playing. I prefer my tram rides to be in silence, or at least with only the murmur of Swiss German in the background (which I can't understand anyway, so it's kind of like silence). Boy, am I a scrooge...

In other tram-related news, the results of my totally unscientific study tell me that the number 16 tram (which I often ride) has the most annoying tram riders in the city. Does anyone who lives in Basel want to challenge this assertion? Whenever I ride it there seem to be lots of screaming children, lots of people who stink like either smoke or booze, lots of pimped-out teenage boys wearing their chains and high-tops listening to hip-hop way too loud on their iPods, and lots of just plain old weirdos. This would include people like "stump man" (the man with a stump for an arm that Kirk saw a couple years ago)-- he was on the 16, of course!