Boarding-line cutter upsets other airline customers

Dear Amy: At the airport recently, the gate agent asked us to line up, as the plane had been delayed twice, and he didn’t want to delay us further. We started to form the lines he indicated by what was on our boarding passes. The line I was in had about 50 people and went along the back wall. We’d been in line several minutes when a young woman came up and began speaking to the older couple in front of me. I assumed she was with them. I never imagined she was shoving her way into the line. But the couple were called to their seats in first class, yet she remained behind and immediately “cut” in line ahead of me. I started to tell this cutter she should go to the end of the line, but she touched my arm, started to laugh as if I’d just said something funny and asked me if I was enjoying the book I held. I was taken aback and didn't reply. The gate agent then motioned her forward, and she boarded ahead of me. Her seat wasn’t even in my section!

Is there a way I could have politely told this woman that cutting in line isn’t the thing to do? Did I condone bad behavior and manners by not saying anything? Dear Patient: Researching your question, I learned that most airlines board using a block system, though this is the least efficient way. A man named Jason Steffen of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics studied boarding methods and found boarding in alternating rows is fastest.

After that, random boarding is still faster than block boarding. (I’m still a bit confused about why an astrophysicist would study airplane boarding, but it’s obviously a frustration that reduces all of us to rubble.) You got played by a master. You were obviously stunned by her brazen behavior. You weren’t prepared to call her out. (Nor were other passengers.) If you hadn’t been so taken aback, you could have simply said, “Hey, we’ve all be waiting patiently. Please don’t cut the line.” Other passengers would’ve cheered you.

Dear Amy: Another response to the issue raised by “From We to I,” who wanted her guy to stop referring to his ex-wife. I had the same problem with my second husband. Whenever he said, “We went to Hawaii,” I’d say, “We did? I don t remember that.” We laughed about it, and it didn’t take long before he began to say, “My ex and I,” or use her name.

Dear Jeanne: Smart.