archie https://archizzl.com/ archie's blog en Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:22:02 GMT a q(uick) q (line) q(uestion) https://archizzl.com/blog/posts/a3q/ https://archizzl.com/blog/posts/a3q/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT This evening, while waiting for the M train to take me back to Brooklyn from dinner with my dad in Manhattan's so-called "Koreatown", I observed two identically formatted notifications of a temporary Q train restriction, written in English and Spanish respectively, posted upon a load-bearing pillar on the platform.

The English poster opened with the caption:

"No Q train between Brighton Beach and Stillwell Av. . ."

while the Spanish poster opened with:

"No habia servicio de la linea Q entre Brighton Beach y Stillwell Av. . ."

Why so many extra words for the Spanish version? El theorized it's because "Q" is a very common shorthand for "qué", which basically means "what" in Spanish. It's funny to imagine a rushed Hispanic commuter glance over at a sign to read:

"No WHAT between Brighton Beach and Stillwell Av. . ."

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