Dan Ports6d ago

Some years ago, I needed to get an visa for urgent travel to China, a process that required me to fly down to SF and stand in a very long line at the Chinese consulate. When I finally handed the woman there my forms, she promptly stamped them and said "you need to take these to Window 2", pointing around the corner. So I walked around the corner...

...where *the same woman* swiveled her chair around and proceeded to check the stamp that she had just applied.

I would have been annoyed if I wasn't in so much awe at discovering the purest form of bureaucracy.

Show threadlolcat6d ago

@dan

Back in the 1980s, some Italian cafes employed a similar system. As a customer, you'd place your order at one window, and the clerk would give you a receipt/voucher. You'd then step to a second window, and hand over the slip of paper before stepping to a third window where you'd collect your coffee. I recall, though these are hazy old memories, at least one morning where it was the same person at each of the three windows.

Also, I once did the same PRC consulate dance in SF!

Show threadMarius Gedminas4d ago
@lolcat @dan That's how bookstores worked in the Soviet Union in my childhood. You stand in line, tell one clerk what book you want, they tell you the price. You stand in line at the register, tell them the price, pay, get a receipt. Back to the first line, hand the receipt to the clerk, get your book. (The clerk puts the receipt on a huge metal spike, like a vertical shish-kebab of paper, that left an impression in my young mind. Didn't seem very safe.)
Show threadlolcat4d ago

@mgedmin @dan

Now that you mention it, I believe at least some of the cafes used the giant receipt skewers too!

Vaguely related: in the early aughts, at a Roman train station, I visited the customer service office for reasons I can't remember. Inside a couple was engaged in an animated, hand-waving argument with a clerk in a uniform, but hatless. After several minutes, the clerk held up a hand, disappeared through a door, and returned with another clerk, also uniformed, but wearing an...

Show threadlolcat4d ago

@mgedmin @dan

...impressive cap.

The argument resumed, and after several minutes, the hatted clerk held up and hand and disappeared through the same door. Minutes later, he returned with a third clerk in an even more impressive hat. Same pattern repeats.

When the *fourth* clerk appeared, he was wearing an absurdly large and ornate cap. He produced a large rubber stamp from a pouch, and the other three clerks stepped away from the desk. Flourishing the stamp grandly, he inked the ...

Show threadlolcat

@mgedmin @dan

...complaining couples documents with a confident smack, held up the documents, and handed them back. The room went silent for a moment, then he and the second and third clerks disappeared back through the door form which they had emerged.

I fell in love with Italy a little.

Jun 18 at 10:27pmWeb