The other factor is the increased regulation of taxis, the drivers of which were once the scourge of the city. It's getting to be an almost safe assumption that you'll arrive at your destination with all four limbs and most of your wallet contents intact. Lest those meddlesome police spoil all the fun, however, a few old-school holdouts continue to make a living just as they always have, by charging passengers extortionate rates and getting violent when they object. One such Neanderthal was spotted in front of Municipal House Saturday afternoon, in a full-on fistfight with a customer. The passenger's female companion valiantly jumped in to try to beat the driver off with a handbag, but it seems the thugs who control some downtown patches are still well-organized — a pack of fellow taxi brutes showed up within minutes and jumped into the fray to help subdue the troublesome fares.

Thank God reputable companies like AAA (14014), Profi (844 700 800) and a handful of others are so well-established these days.

One thing that's still risky is theater programs. Two audience members at what was scheduled to be Ženy mezi nebem a zemí (Women Between Heaven and Earth) at Švandovo divadlo Saturday were scratching their heads at the story line and characters throughout the performance, waiting in vain for the synopsis they had read to emerge. It transpired that the house had changed the program ... with no announcement to the audience and no warning from the ticket taker, even though Women was clearly printed on their tickets.

Menu changes are generally good news, though newly trumpeted chefs should possibly be taken with a grain of salt, it seems. Thus is the lesson from Sanjiv Suri's makeover of his top-flight restaurants V Zátiší and Bellevue. While both remain food shrines worthy of international note, some of the promotional material given to journalists about the update was a bit vague on how much time Italian master chef Carlo Bernardini will be putting in at the former eatery in his capacity as "special consultant."