Today, I only have a brief note about usage of the homophone pair "cue" and "queue" which are frequently interchanged incorrectly. If you read internet boards, you'll probably run into this issue at least a dozen times a day.

Cue:
Though this word is also what you call the wooden stick in a game of billiards, its more common usage is as a signal of some sort, generally telling someone or something to enter or begin.

The audience shared an awkward laugh when the lead actor missed his cue, leaving a helpless heroine alone on stage for what seemed like an eternity.

Here is a usage you may have seen in film or television, where cue can be used as a command verb. Forgive the idiomatic style.

She's almost here. Cue the orchestra in 3, 2, now!


Queue
Although both words share a common ancestor, this spelling refers to a line of anything, and is used more commonly in British English. In American English, we almost never refer to a line of people as a "queue," but we often find the word in computer-related contexts.

It may be hours before my paper gets printed. There are 38 people ahead of me in the processing queue.

Queue also works as a verb:

Ladies and gentleman, the show will begin in one hour. Please queue near the northern entrance.