Gotta love the big city.

There are certain things you find in a big city that are hard to find anywhere else. Things like world-class museums. Broadway shows. Four-star restaurants. And fabulous subway performers. Yes, living in a big city means you will inevitably end up on public transportation at some point in time, and if you, like me, want to avoid paying half a month's rent in parking fees, you may end up on it quite a bit. But that's ok, because sometimes riding the subway affords you some of the best entertainment around.

On Friday, I took the Red line to work because I had an eye appointment in the morning and missed the Metra. That evening I was tired and in a bit of a surly mood, as I had to stay late at work to cover for a co-worker who is very sweet but hasn't a clue how to do her job. I hurried down to the platform hoping to make it onto the train waiting there, but just as I got to the bottom of the stairs the train pulled away.

Drat!

I looked around in order to assess my surroundings, which is always a good thing to do when you're a single female on a subway platform in a big city. That's when I saw this guy standing in the middle of the platform with a small boombox and a dufflebag at his feet. The bag had what appeared to be a stuffed animal tiger head sticking out of it. Oh geez, I thought, here we go with the horribly off-key singing. Little did I know what I was in for.

I walked to the side of the platform where a couple of girls were standing waiting for the train. I glanced back at the subway performer, and he was now holding the stuffed tiger, which was dressed in a long-sleeved t-shirt with a gold chain around its neck. The man was meticulously adjusting a backwards baseball cap on his unwitting accomplice. Once the cap was positioned to his liking, he bent down and hit a button on his boombox. Suddenly the song "Eye of the Tiger" filled the air, but without the lyrics. Somehow this guy had gotten ahold of the karaoke version or something. What the... I thought.

And then the man started rapping. Or, more accurately, the tiger started rapping.

I exchanged a few eyebrows-raised glances with the girls next to me and then we all just burst out laughing.

The lyrics were great. One verse went something like, "Sometimes I get bored just walking around, so I take the red line to Cermak and Chinatown. Eating antelope and deer is nice, but sometimes I'm just hungry for some shrimp fried rice." L.O.L. The man saw us laughing and couldn't help but grin himself--he knew he was eliciting this response, and he liked it. I should have given him some money, and if my wallet had been more accessible I probably would have. He was pretty much the best subway performer I'd ever seen.

A rapping stuffed tiger. Only in Chicago.