Patrick Kane REALLY Needed a Quarter

Apparently, Patrick Kane is feeling the effects of this economy worse than I am.

I'm not trying to make light of a serious situation, but the incident involving Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane is kind of funny. As in, I-laughed-out-loud-when-I-read-it funny. I don't know any professional athletes; I don't hang out with anybody who knows a professional athlete (at least not to my knowledge); yet every time I take a cab somewhere, whomever I'm with always has enough money to pay the cabbie and leave him/her a few bucks for a tip. Kane and his cousin rocked the cab driver in the face (allegedly) because he was unable to give them TWENTY CENTS change.

Again, this is a professional athlete. Kane is only 20 years old and hasn't been in the NHL long enough to get Marian Hossa money, but it's safe to say he's making hundreds of thousands of dollars. U.S. dollars at that; no Canadian currency here.

I'm sure this is all one big misunderstanding or something along those lines, or at least that's how it'll play out in public, but look for the cabbie to get a decent chunk of change (pun very much intended) from Kane to go away and be quiet about the whole thing. This reminds me of the old car care commercials that said, "pay a little more now or pay a lot more later." Had Kane just adhered to that mantra, he would've shrugged off losing a couple dimes as opposed to shelling out several thousand dollars.

So the next time you've been shortchanged (man, these puns are all over the place in this story), whether it's by a cashier, barber, or cab driver, just say to yourself, "what wouldn't Patrick Kane do?" and then behave accordingly.

~~ Lank