Language

Setting: The order queue inside McDonald's (drive-through line too long.)

Mission: Aquire a 6 Piece Chicken Nugget Happy meal and deliver it to a really hungry Anna Sfoglia.

Narrative: Waiting on the pickup queue situated to the left of the first queue. Looking around I note a scene worthy of Orwellian prose; more than a dozen people waiting to either order or to pick up, all of them laser-focused, their heads leaning forward at near exactly the same angle, on their cellphones. No verbal communication. No interaction whatever with their surroundings. No reason to look up from their device, save hearing an order number to pick up, or the mundane chant of “can I help whose next?”

Rhetoric: What happened to senseless banter while standing captive on the McDonalds queue? Senseless, but nonetheless pure and simple human interaction. Focusing on the exchange of opinions, ideas, complaints, however mundane.

Rant: And what the hell is a “whose?” Is it plant, animal, human? Is it even alive, and most importantly, How did it devolve from the grammatically correct, more polite, and less ambiguous “Can I please help the next customer on line?“

Resolution: OK, I feel much better now.