By ANDREW JACOBS

They call it "the lot" or "the pen," although it is also sarcastically referred to as "the cabby country club" or less charitably as "taxi driver purgatory."

From the air, it is a shimmering yellow blob on an otherwise colorless landscape of tarmac and terminals. Hidden amid the cargo depots at Kennedy International Airport, the four-acre lot contains hundreds of taxis waiting for lucrative fares to Manhattan, the dreaded "shorty" trips to Brooklyn and Queens or the dream rides to New Jersey and Connecticut. Its official name is the Central Taxi Hold, and the wait can stretch up to five hours.

A Talk, a Snack, a Chance at $45 or More, continued