NP | ZK translation: on line for tickets

[ish mailian]

Not all but most Native speakers of New York English say "on line" and
not "in line" to describe what the English do when they form a queue
or queue up.

Of course, in NYC you may also hear "line up", "wait in line", "form a
line", "fall in", and even "we queued for tickets", not to mention
whatever people say in dozens of other languages.

This NYC geographical use (on line) may be shifting now because, as
Becky points out, "on line" and "on line" are used to describe a
connection to the internet.

Is the speaker a native New Yorker? Did he read Green Eggs and Ham?

So we moved out from the city
to on Long Island.
You don't live in Long Island,
you live on Long Island.
When you live in the city,
people ask you, "Where do you live?"
you go, "We live in the city."
You don't live on the city.
[laughter]
But if you move out of the city...
You're in it now. Now if you go out,
you're going to be on the island.
[laughter]
Long Island's
not one of those places you...
You can't get in it. There's nothing...
There's nothing to get in.
You just stay on it.
[laughter]
My parents would say, "Jerry, we're going
to the city today, so get ready.
We're going in."
"We're going to get on the train."
We don't get in the train.
You get on the train,
even though you see trains,
there's nobody on it.
You never see anybody on top of a train.
But that's how you talk. If you want
to live here, this is how you talk.
"We're going to get on the train."
Why do you get on the train?
Why?
So you can get off it!
"Get off the train!
This is our stop!"
[laughter]
"We've got to get in the cab."
You don't get on the cab.
You were on the train,
but you don't get on the cab.
You get in the cab.
Why do you get in the cab?
So you can get out!
"You've got to get out of the...
We're here.
Get out of the cab. We're here."
"Why are you still in the cab?
Get out of the cab."
[laughter]
"OK, Jerry, what about Uber?
What do you do with Uber?"
That's the new thing.
Do you get in it? No.
On it? No.
Off it? No.
What do you do with Uber?
- [man] You grab it.
- [man] You get one.
No. No.
[woman] You just take it.
You take it! You take Uber!
[laughter]

from "jerry-before-seinfeld"

On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 7:27 PM, Mike Jing
<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> P207.16-19   He is a man on line for tickets to a ballet that a woman wants
> to see and he is willing to wait for hours while she tends her
> schoolchildren. She is the woman, rigid in her seat, watching a dancer
> splice the air, fingertips to toes.
>
> What does "on line for tickets" mean?
>
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l