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Jumping the queue

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Apparently a true story.

“In London in 2007, during a tube strike, a journalist named Gareth Edwards is standing with other commuters in a long, snaking line for a bus, when a smartly dressed businessman blatantly cuts into the queue line behind him. (Behind him: this detail matters.)  The interloper proves immune to polite remonstration, whereupon Edwards is seized by a magnificent idea.

“He turns to the elderly woman standing behind the queue-jumper, and asks her if she’d like to go ahead of him. She accepts, so he asks the person behind her, and the next person, and the next – until 60 or 70 people have moved ahead, Edwards and the seething queue-jumper shuffling further backwards all the time. The bus finally pulls up, and Edwards hears a shout from the front of the line. It’s the elderly woman, addressing him: ‘Young man! Do you want to go in front of me?’ ”

Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian Weekend, 28 August 2010

Further reading

  • Autumn leavesAutumn leaves
  • The outcome of any communication is what we intend it to beThe outcome of any communication is what we intend it to be
  • Customer service thoughtCustomer service thought
  • ProjectionProjection
  • Commit to growthCommit to growth
  • Dip into the bran tubDip into the bran tub
  • Too busyToo busy
  • More time to thinkMore time to think
  • Spring is sprungSpring is sprung
  • Moving into maturityMoving into maturity