Lesson 4
Waiting in Line

The British queue up and the Americans wait in line, except for New Yorkers, who wait on line. No one seems to know the reason for this local idiom. It is something to ponder while waiting in／on line.

Another thing to ponder: It is estimated that Americans spend up to five years of their lives in that tedious, weary but unavoidable process known as waiting. Studies show that otherwise rational people act irrationally when forced to stand in line or wait in crowds, even becoming violent.

Queues are a grim reality of city life. While there seems to be no consensus on the city’s worst line, the ones mentioned most often in talks here and there were lunchtime lines at banks and post offices and, among younger people, movie lines and college-registration lines.

“Bank lines,” said Mark Sloane , an investor. “No matter what time of day you bank, the number of tellers is inadequate to the number of patrons. Even when the bank is open you see long lines in front of the money machines outside.”

“Supermarkets,” said Ed Frantz, a graphic artist, who once abandoned a full shopping cart in the middle of a long checkout line. It was not a political act. “The line was filled with coupon clippers and check writers,” he recalled. “And suddenly I had to walk away. Food no longer mattered.”

In any line the fundamental rule is first come, first served, or what social scientists call “distributive justice.” Exceptions may be made, say, in fancy restaurants where the headwaiters have their favorites, but, in general, the rule prevails.

If misery loves company, so do sports fans. Dr. Leon Mann documented this several years ago when, as a Harvard professor, he studied the long overnight queues for tickets to ball games in his native Australia.

“Outside the stadium something of a carnival atmosphere prevails,” he wrote in The American Journal of Sociology. “The devotees sing, sip warm drinks, play cards and huddle together.”

Like the teams they had come to watch, the fans in line took timeouts. Some worked in shifts, with certain members leaving to take naps or eat meals, while others saved their places in line. Some staked claims in line with items of personal property such as sleeping bags and folding chairs.“During the early hours of waiting,” Dr. Mann noted, “the queues often consisted of one part people to two parts inanimate objects.”

Nobody has ever seriously studied Helen Quinn’s Saturday morning line for Metropolitan Opera tickets, but perhaps someone should — Miss Quinn is not an official at the Met.

For 15 years standees at the opera have been doing just that, thanks to Miss Quinn’s ticketing system. She makes, dates and numbers her tickets — one for each of the 175 standingroom spots available — and dispenses them to early birds. Assured of a place, ticket holders then leave and return shortly before 8 A.M. to line up for the real tickets.

名人名言

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than 10,000 tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and unspeakable love.

—Washington Irving

排队

排队，英国人说queue up, 美国人除纽约人说 wait on line外，都用wait in line。纽约人为什么要用那个地方性的说法，似乎没人知道，这倒是可以在排队时好好思索一番(ponder)的问题。

需要思索的还有一点：据估计，美国人一生中花费在枯燥、累人（weary）却又躲避不掉的等待上的时间竟达五年之多。研究表明，如果人被迫排队，或挤在人群中等待，本来深明事理的人也会失去理智，甚至暴跳如雷。

排队是城市生活中一大严肃的现实难题。对于城市里什么队最难排，人们似乎没有一致的看法（consensus），但常常听到人们到处谈论的，莫过于午饭时间在银行和邮局的排队。年轻人当中，经常议论纷纷的则是买电影票和大学注册的排队了。

“银行里的排队最讨厌了，”投资者马克·斯隆说。“不论什么时候去银行，接待顾客(patron)的出纳员也总是不够。即使在营业时间里，也能看到银行外面的自动提款机跟前排着长队。”

“最难排的队要数超级市场了，”书画（graphic）艺术家埃得·弗兰茨说。有一次，他在等待付款的长队中间将满载货物的购物车扔下就走了。这并非是什么政治行动。他回忆说：“长队中又是剪配给票（coupon）的，又是填支票的。猛然间，我觉得必须离开那里。买不买食品已经无所谓了。”

不管在什么地方排队，基本原则都是先到先办事，或者用社会学家的话说，就是“公平待人。”当然啦，例外情况也是有的。比如，高级饭店对老主顾就优先。不过一般情况下是遵守这个原则的。

如果说受罪（misery）的人愿意凑在一起，体育比赛的观众也一样。几年前哈佛大学教授列昂·曼博士在其祖国澳大利亚对通宵排队购买球赛入场券的现象作了研究，著文证明了这一点。

“体育馆外面呈现出某种狂欢节的气氛”，他在《美国社会学杂志》上写道。“球迷们唱着歌，呷着热饮料，打扑克，挨挨挤挤，互相拥作一团。”

就像他们来观看的球队一样，排队购票的球迷们也有暂停的时候。有的采用倒班制，一些人站在队里看位子，换下别人去小憩或吃些东西。有的则把睡袋、折叠椅之类的个人物件放在队里占位子。曼博士写道：“排队等待的前几个钟头里，队里常常是三分之一的人，三分之二是了无生机的（inanimate）物品。”

至于海伦·奎恩每周六早上在大都会（metropolitan）歌剧院售票处维护秩序一事，还没有人认真研究过。也许应该有人来研究一下——奎恩小姐并不是该院的职员。

15年来，由于奎恩小姐的售票体系，到这家歌剧院买站票的观众一直都是买到票的。她先做好票号，写上日期，编上号码——175张站票全都有个号，然后她把这些票号分发（dispense）给早来的人。拿到票号的人因为得到一张票的保证，便离开票房，八点前再回来凭号排队，购买真正的戏票。

名人名言

眼泪带有一种神圣。它并不是脆弱的表现，而是威力强大的标志。眼泪比一万张嘴巴更让人信服，它传达了巨大的悲痛，深深的痛悔和难以言表的爱。

——华盛顿·欧文