So, there was this seemingly Arabic music, or maybe prayer, playing at great length on the bus, providing an intriguing and often annoying backdrop for my ride through the city in the sun. I think it came from the driver's compartment as nobody else seemed to be carrying an audio device or wearing headphones (and it was too loud for leakage, anyway).

I didn't exactly hate it. In fact, it sounded a lot like Hebrew prayer and was quite a bit like listening to the tape my cantor made for me of my bar mitzvah portion. But I don't need to learn that at present and, in principle, the notion of a driver of a municipal bus subjecting people to his own choice of sonic backdrop, as if he were a New York cab driver, just hit me wrong.

I mean, it's not right.

Is it?

It's not.

Right?