Yesterday I crossed the finish line for my commitment to daily blogging, and even met a deadline for a conference submission. (Remarkably, I submitted the paper even though the deadline was extended, in part to accommodate confusion over date lines and timezones, since the conference organizers are in Shanghai, and probably most of those submitting papers are from timezones that are lagging behind. But they added several days, which may be overkill…) And now I’m trying to get things in line for another submission. The timeline is quite tight, since the deadline is Monday. As it is, I’m pretty wiped out from pushing myself for that last submission. I think I’ve been running on adrenaline the last few weeks, which is actually not a kind of line. And while I should be working on an outline for the next deadline, or some other more productive line of activities, I find myself goofing of online. And thinking up line things.
- stand in line: wait in a queue
- toe the line: an expression meaning to conform to standards, and often mistakenly written as “tow the line.”
- I Walk the Line: a Johnny Cash song from the 50s [on YouTube]
- “Thin Line Between Love and Hate“: A song by the Persuaders from the 70s
- Borderline: a Madonna song from the 80s [on YouTube]
- Blue Lines: an album by Massive Attack album from the 90s
- police line-up: a process of lining up suspects for identification by a witness or victim of a crime
A line-up: The Usual Suspects. - Nightline: a late-night news commentary show that recently featured The Bloggess (or at least a screen shot of her blog.)
- The Dot and the Line: Romance in Lower Mathematics: a book by Norton Juster, and short movie (animated by Chuck Jones) based on the same
- What’s my line? A game show from the 50s, 60s, and 70s
- Whose line is it anyway? An improv TV show
- doing lines: a slang expression for snorting cocaine
- line graph: a way of displaying information. I’ve been doing a lot of these lately.
A line graph, generated using SPSS and silliness even though I should proabably be doing other things, like trying to get caught up on my sleep.
This list is but a scratch on the surface of all the things with line. (There sure are a lot of meanings of the word line, for a start.) If you have more line items to include in the line-up, drop me a line in the comments.
collecting tokens 
Oh my gosh! I had never seen the little cartoon of The Dot and the Line, but (as a mathematician) I’m familiar with the book. Norton Juster, of course, is better known for The Phantom Tollbooth. Thanks for posting that!
It is probably too early to think about airline tickets for the conference. I’m inc-lined to think you dec-lined to use “headline” as your headline for a reason, but you might try seeing if Phoebe wants to wear an A-line dress to school on Friday. Failing that, you could wear eyeliner and dance a conga line?
That video was pretty cute! I hadn’t seen it before.
In these parts, we stand ON line. :)
And, thank you for the video of the Dot & the Line. Love.
I always enjoy reading your lists. Here’s an addition: Wichita Lineman – popular song recorded by Glenn Campbell (the lineman being a powerline technician). The song was really popular when I was a kid.
What does it say about me that I say both in and on when discussing lines? Hmm …
And to add to your list:
reading between the lines
getting a line on something
hold the line … football or phones, take your pick
line item veto, an enduring dream of politicians everywhere
and my favorite of favorites: “Lines and Squares,” by A.A. Milne