The Friday Five

To the woman in the white car in front of me at the tollbooth at exit 11A, Mass Pike and I-495 on Wednesday.

1. The Mass Pike is a toll road. Your car was tagged with the old, red, rear- only plate. That means, you've lived here long enough to know the Pike is a toll road.

2. Sitting in the middle of the tollbooth is not the time to start hunting for pennies in your seat cushions to pay the toll.

3. If you don't want to pay a toll, you can take an alternate route. I-290, Route 20, and Route 9 all intersect with I-495. None of these roads are toll roads.

4. Shame on you for arguing with the toll collector. Your failure to plan and be prepared is not her fault. She gave you a form and instructions. Take the form, do what the toll collector told you to do, and move on. Have some consideration for the people in the 6 cars who had the misfortune to be behind you.

5. Thank your stars I exercised great restraint and didn't lean on the horn. I did call you an idjit, though. The phraseology could have been worse.