Snaking queues don't cut it anymore
Snaking queues dont cut it anymore. You know, the way they make you wind back and forth along a maze of waist-height poles strung out with spring-loaded seatbelt webbing, between you and the ticket counter, between you and the cinema entrance, and increasingly, between you and the express checkout queue at the supermarket.

Ten years ago it made queues seem shorter but now we've evolved the ability to read the snaking queue - we can now estimate how long it will take anyway. That could be the first mental skill we've evolved since the ability to turn off our forebrains while watching TV.

But at least in snaky queues you get to glance at more people; from front and back, usually several times - you can't buy a better opportunity to peoplewatch.