In any line the fundamental rule is first come, first served, or what dsocial 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 Quinns 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 Quins ticketing system. She makes, dates and numbers her tickets one for each of the 175 standing room 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.
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