what’s your line?

these two askmefi questions about conversation starters inspired some interesting answers. “how do you know the host?” and its variants always seem a pretty safe bet to me. “are you from around here?” and the line of questioning from there is also always pretty reliable.

i’m also one of those people who isn’t a big fan of “what do you do?” probably because what i do isn’t terribly meaningful to most people, and the most common discussion it leads to is the description of some computer problem they are having or had.

maybe i’m crazy, but i think “what’s your line?” may actually be a pretty good line itself. i expect you to research the matter and get back to me. unless it works really well, then i don’t want to know.