When you phone work to say you won't be there...

[Tante Shvester]

...do you call in or do you call out?

I've always called out, but lately I've met a bunch of folks who call in to say they won't be coming in.

Now I'm confused.  Which is standard?

Also, when you have to line up (maybe you're at Disney World waiting to get on to Space Mountain), do you wait in line or on line?  I always grew up waiting on line, but I hear a lot of people talking about waiting in line.  For them, on line means they have an internet connection.  In New York (and New Jersey), at least, it means you are lined up.  How about you folks in the rest of the country.  Or is this just another quaint regionalism, like the "appetizing" thing.

And are there any of you who do not have roots in the NY area who would understand what I meant if I told you to stop kvetching?

[Porter]

I call in sick and stand in line.

And are there any of you who do not have roots in the NY area who would understand what I meant if I told you to stop kvetching?

No.

[pooka]

To call out is to question someone's honesty or challenge them.  Or I suppose one can call out for help, in a literal calling/screaming way.  I'd also accept calling out for pizza.  I've never heard of calling out sick to work, though.  

I've heard of waiting "on line", but mostly it's "in line."  

Increasingly, I think you just make this stuff up.  Appy my sasquatch.

[Jonathon]

I call in to work to tell them that I'll be out sick. I stand in line. And yes, I know what "kvetch" means.

I don't know about all the others, but it looks like "on line" is mostly a feature of the tri-state area.

[Farmgirl]

So.. New York people just talk funny, don't they?    

[Porter]

So.. New York people just talk funny, don't they?  

I think they're trying to imitate the accent I hear on so many movies and TV shows.

[Lady Montagu]

I call in sick.

And are there any of you who do not have roots in the NY area who would understand what I meant if I told you to stop kvetching?

Yes. My mother (raised Baptist in East Texas) used to say it.  

[Tante Shvester]

So.. New York people just talk funny, don't they?  

You ain't jes' whistlin' Dixie, sugah!

[Noemon]

Call in sick, wait in line, am familiar with "kvetch".

[dkw]

What Noemon said.

Bob says wait "on line" though.  It sounds really weird to me.  When he says "We'd better get on line" I always think internet first, then realize what he means.

What about Interstate highways?  Do you all say "Let's take I-80" or "Let's take the 80"?  

[Porter]

Let's take I-80.

[rivka]

I call in to work to tell them that I'll be out sick. I stand in line.

Ditto to all.

What about Interstate highways?  Do you all say "Let's take I-80" or "Let's take the 80"?

I always say "the <name of freeway>." However, I have been informed that this is a California-ism. (It's spreading, though. I have several friends in Portland who say it too.)

[Tante Shvester]

Around here, we call the highway by it's nickname, if it has one ("The Turnpike", "The Parkway", "The Deegan", "The Cross Bronx") or, by it's number, if it doesn't have a snazzy nick ("Take 287 to 78, get off at exit 42").  No one says "the 287".  That would just be wrong.

[rivka]

In NY/tri-state, it would be. But we've already established that y'all talk funny.

Around here it's "the 101" or "the Hollywood Freeway." (Except that the Hollywood Freeway is at times the 101, and at times the 170. At which point the 101 becomes the Ventura Freeway -- but in the other direction the Ventura is the 134. Seriously, I'm not making this up.)

[Jonathon]

It would be wrong in many other parts of the country, too. I have never heard a Utahn talk about "the 15" or "the 80"—it's always just "I-15" and "I-80" (though "215," without the "I-").

[Japannie]

Some of us just have to say "the interstate" and everyone knows exactly which road we mean. Yep, the interstate. The one that goes from Seattle to Boston and gives us a polite nod in between.

Although it was a fun moment when Elder Couzelis (of my sig fame) and I discovered that we live on the same road. He's from upstate New York.

[Japannie]

Oh, also, no one "phones" work but Canucks. We "call" work.

[Jonathon]

Speak for yourself, eh!

Actually, I was thinking about saying that, but I figured that Tante is already insecure enough about her dialect.

[Japannie]

I'm just praising her uniquities.

[Tante Shvester]

Oh, also, no one "phones" work but Canucks. We "call" work.

I'm not Canadian, and I phone people.  And sometimes I call them.  And sometimes I call them on the phone.

Huh. I guess I have my own unique personal little dialect.  I speak Shvesterish.

[pooka]

On the X-files one time they talked about going down "the I-95".  Toto, I don't think we're in the D.C. metroplex anymore.

[rivka]

It would be wrong in many other parts of the country, too. I have never heard a Utahn talk about "the 15" or "the 80"—it's always just "I-15" and "I-80" (though "215," without the "I-").

Yes, I know. As I had said earlier:

I always say "the <name of freeway>." However, I have been informed that this is a California-ism. (It's spreading, though. I have several friends in Portland who say it too.)

I was just heckling Esther.

On the X-files one time they talked about going down "the I-95". 

And the actors and writers are primarily from guess where? This is actually the main way the usage is spreading from California, I'm told. That and emigration.

[Porter]

That and emigration.

Like rats from a sinking ship.

[rivka]

Pfft. More room and cheaper real estate for the rest of us.

Except, of course, for the fact that Californian immigration has consistently outstripped emigration for quite a long time.

[Porter]

People can't stay away from your traffic.