comments

1. Mike Dresser on February 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

   Well, if there’s a line on either side of yours, than statistics will make a fool of you two times out of three. Stand on the end, and it’s only 50-50.

2. Lucy Foley on February 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

   Sometimes I think that standing in line is when my ambition really gets to shine. I am fucking remarkable at this stuff. Remarkable. I have also written a song about being a queue. It is good.

3. Andrew Simone on February 13th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

   I would one day hope to stand in line to hear that song.

4. Lucy Foley on February 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

   Aw. I hope you’re one day standing in line to hear it too, Andrew. I will give you a sleeping bag if you have to camp out overnight. Blush.

5. Cooper Renner on February 13th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

   Let’s all hear it, Lucy! (And I’m with you, Deron. I’m terrible at picking lines.)

6. range on February 13th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

   After I saw what queues are modeled like in advanced probability, the whole phenomenon lost its mystery.

7. The Nag on February 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm

   Get over it. No one is (I don’t care what they say).

8. Lucy Foley on February 13th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

   Nag, I challenge you to a duel of queueing. Whoever has the most fun wins.

9. Rick Neece on February 13th, 2009 at 5:28 pm

   In your car, in a line for the ATMs at the bank, is it better, if you’re the next in line for either of two, to get behind one or the other? Or to hang “back” enough to get in either when one opens up. I’m not sure, but it seems like “the line” behind you would actually move faster in the long run? (Not that the folks behind you would share this belief.)

   E.G. Old Navy or Best Buy or somesuch, where the queue is held back away from the registers and each person, as they come to the head of the queue, takes the next checker available?

10. Aaron Winslow on February 13th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

    It’s because you’re a bad person.

11. Daryl Scroggins on February 13th, 2009 at 6:44 pm

    I bet standing in line is often a child’s first acquaintance with the issue of fairness out in the wide world.

12. barbara on February 14th, 2009 at 6:36 pm

    Pick one on the left. Most people go to the right.