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Grex Books Item 87: Writing a book, me, noo heh. I cant do that.
Entered by behlal on Sun Dec 12 16:53:55 UTC 1999:

An Amateur Filosopher in Action?
I am planning to write a book, now this might sound strange but, about(uhmm
how do I say it in English, when you stand in line to buy something, I'll refer
as "line" if that's not the correct word I'll use it anyway) lines, to banks
, bars, shops, fast-food places and anything you can stand in line to. This
might sound as a bad idea at first but when you think about it there is a lot
of different aspects on lines. And I plan to bring them up as people see them.
That's why I ask you who are interested to mail me any aspects you find
ironic or in anyway fun about lines. This is not a fact book it will be
looking at lines in a fun way. So please send me your most ironic, fun and
strange encounters in lines. :P. If this is a bad idea, please tell me to NOT
write the book otherwise .. well.

14 responses total.

#1 of 14 by md on Sun Dec 12 19:13:36 1999:

In NYC they say they stand "on line."  Someone
will even ask you, "Are you on this line?"  With
the advent of the internet meaning of the phrase
"on line," you can't always say, "I was on line
to buy tickets" and be understood.

#2 of 14 by mcnally on Sun Dec 12 22:36:50 1999:

  Are there any regions in the US that use the British "queue"?

#3 of 14 by gelinas on Sun Dec 12 22:59:19 1999:

I *think* I've seen the term at Six Flags Over Georgia, but I can't think
of any non-amusement park places that have used it.

#4 of 14 by orinoco on Mon Dec 13 00:41:05 1999:

"telnet queue," perhaps?

#5 of 14 by gelinas on Mon Dec 13 01:29:23 1999:

Yeah, it shows up regularly in programming.  Marketing, too, I think.

#6 of 14 by rcurl on Mon Dec 13 02:22:43 1999:

I've always though "queue" was the established term. But, in reflection,
I think I do say "line" more often. "Are you on line?", "Is this a line?"
"Line" is more literal - a bunch of people standing in, well, a *line*!
Queue is virtual - one waits in an order, but not necessary in a "line".
A telnet queue is a bunch of scattered individuals all over the word - 
doesn't form any kind of line. A "take a number" queue is, well, a *queue*,
not a line, if you are free to wander around.

#7 of 14 by davel on Tue Dec 14 01:33:50 1999:

At least in the parts of the midwest I've dwelt in (and American literature
I'm familiar with), "queue" is not standard; "line" is.  In computer
contexts (but dealing with people for whom the term "naive user" was
invented) I've found the term "queue" to be completely unknown.  I tell
them it's British for what we call being in line, & then they usually
understand.  But mostly they've never *heard* the word "queue".

#8 of 14 by orinoco on Tue Dec 14 03:56:26 1999:

I'd always assumed that "queue" in a computer context was just because "line"
is already used to mean too many different things: a line of text, a phone
line, etc.  But the bit about being in different places makes sense too.

#9 of 14 by md on Tue Dec 14 13:06:26 1999:

There is a branch of math called "queueing theory"
that deals with how many bank tellers you need
based on average transaction time, maximum acceptable 
length of queue, peak customer volume, etc.

#10 of 14 by rcurl on Tue Dec 14 16:54:34 1999:

It's a sub-discipline of stochastic processes.

#11 of 14 by behlal on Tue Dec 14 21:08:39 1999:

Well I new there was a word like queue but I did'nt know how to spell it,
there is this thing about this book, err, it's not maybe the right word for
it, maybe essey is more like it or something like that. I have given "queue's"
alot of thought, well I found out that there is alot of diffrences, actually
some quite funny diffrences about "queue's", like if you take the personal
territorys people have, you can ivade the personal territory in a bank queue
by standing to close to the one ahead of you, aproximatly 0,2-0,3 meters is
allowed, but in a bar queue people stand almost on each other and noone
bothers with it. Another example that I tried out when collecting information
is that people get REALLY upset if you try to look over their shoulder when
they are in a bank queue. Or any other queue what they have their wallet out
of their pocket. I find this kind of stuff amusing.

#12 of 14 by lilmo on Fri Dec 17 22:42:19 1999:

I read a whole lot, so I've run into queue a bunch, but in "real life",
virtually everyone I know says "in line".  I wait in line at the grocery
store, fast food restaurants, at the library, you name it.  I don't have any
good stories I can think of, but in America, one definitely says "in line."

(On a side note, Americans also use a period to separate units from fractions
in writing decimal numbers.  E.g., pi = 3.14159 (and so on), rather than
3,14159 (and so on).)

#13 of 14 by orinoco on Sat Dec 18 00:45:00 1999:

The shoulder/queue/annoyance thing is more likely because it's seen as rude
to pry into other people's money matters, not necessarily anything unusual
about queues.  Or lines either, for that matter.
The distance thing is interesting, though.  Not only do people maintain a
certain distance away from the next person in line, but they stay within a
certain distance - when the first one moves forward a foot or two, everyone
else does the same rather than leave a gap.  This is the only time I can think
of in our culture where it's considered wrong to stand too far away from a
stranger you aren't talking to. 
(I'm told that in Japan, for instance, the whole standing at the far side of
the elevator from the other person thing is considered rude, since it implies
you think something's wrong with the other person).

#14 of 14 by behlal on Sun Dec 19 00:19:32 1999:

You're absolutley right about that. Niether can I think of any other place
where you can stand too far from someone, it's peculiar. I'll have the 3.14159
thing in mind thank you :).

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