As you may know, New Yorkers have an interesting way of stating that they are standing in a singular column of fellow human beings.
Rather than saying that they are standing “in line,” they say that they’re standing “on line.”
With this understanding, I would like to posit that there are two distinct types of New Yorkers:
- Those New Yorkers who say “on line” in the same way I say bubbler” for a drinking fountain and “yard sale” for what people in Connecticut call a “tag sale. The simple recognition that variations in regional vocabulary are normal and common.
- Those New Yorkers who weirdly wear “on line” as some kind of underserved and irrelevant badge of honor, pointing out – whenever possible – that they say “online” because they are a New Yorkers, and New Yorkers say “on line.”
I’m inclined to say that there are more of the latter than the former, but perhaps my utter loathing of the latter have caused them to make a much larger impression in my mind.
