I saw this in a BBC report: Some things I have read suggest the USA, which made the metric system legal in 1866, will in two years' time get rid of imperial measurements, apart from miles. If so, we will stand alongside Burma and Liberia?
They've been pushing metrics down our throats since I was in grammar school during the 1940's. I paid it no mind then reasoning that if God wanted the metric system, he wouldn't have invented inches.
Some years ago suddenly things were being marketed in liters, but again it didn't catch on, and we're basically back to the norm measurement-wise. IIRC there was also a movement to put kilometer and mile markers along highways. It wasn't received well and we measure in miles only now.
You don't say. How do you feel about giving metrics the heave-ho?
Funny story. When we were in Spain we stayed a couple of days in Alicante. We absolutely loved it there and stayed in a fabulous four star hotel, marble bathrooms, fantastic views, etc. for $13.00 per night. I had the best coffee I ever tasted there and the orange juice was divine.
There's a very nice outdoor market in town and we were having a great time walking up and down the stalls with me in the vanguard ordering stuff and my accountant husband figuring out the money pulling up the rear.
I had remembered something about kilos and pounds, one of which was double the other, but I mis-remembered. The almonds and pistachios and dried fruits were fantastic, so I went along ordering two kilos of everything thinking it was half a pound. Finally my husband catches up and says he can't carry any more, so please stop buying. We had four and half pounds of half a dozen or more items.
I've never got the hang of the metric weights (I would have made the same error in the market!) and I stick to my old fashioned pounds and ounces kitchen scales. I'll be very pleased to buy my cloth in yards instead of metres again. I don't think it is simply a matter of preferring what we grew up with because I think our decimalised money system is much better than the old 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound.
I think we'll just go on in our muddling English way and have a mixture of systems to please everyone - thank heavens.
Since we had a car, it wasn't a problem taking them with us. We took the long way from Madrid to Barcelona where picked up the train to Avignon and then the super fast TGV train to Paris where we visited our younger son who was having a ball in his junior year abroad.
As an aside: We took the train to Calais (I think) and then the hovercraft to Dover. When we got to the ticket window and heard English being spoken, it wounded like the music of the spheres and the heavenly chorus of angels.
We landed in Victoria station on a Friday night. Traffic was intense, but we picked up our rental car and off we went with no destination or reservations anywhere. We finally ended up in Guildford (we picked it because our daughter lives in Guilford CT).
And so began our excellent adventure through England and Scotland. Driving on the left turned out not to be as big a problem as changing gears with our left hand. There was many a bruised knuckle as we first sought to change gears with our right hand only to hit them on the door before we remembered that we had to do it leftie.
Dunno where the BBC got that idea, but there is NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER that the U.S. will get rid of imperial measurements in two years' time, and it's extremely unlikely in twenty years' time, either.
Like erp, I too learned the metric system decades ago as a schoolchild, and to date the only place where I've encountered it in common usage in America is in the military.
6 comments:
I saw this in a BBC report:
Some things I have read suggest the USA, which made the metric system legal in 1866, will in two years' time get rid of imperial measurements, apart from miles. If so, we will stand alongside Burma and Liberia?
Do you know anything about it?
They've been pushing metrics down our throats since I was in grammar school during the 1940's. I paid it no mind then reasoning that if God wanted the metric system, he wouldn't have invented inches.
Some years ago suddenly things were being marketed in liters, but again it didn't catch on, and we're basically back to the norm measurement-wise. IIRC there was also a movement to put kilometer and mile markers along highways. It wasn't received well and we measure in miles only now.
You don't say. How do you feel about giving metrics the heave-ho?
Funny story. When we were in Spain we stayed a couple of days in Alicante. We absolutely loved it there and stayed in a fabulous four star hotel, marble bathrooms, fantastic views, etc. for $13.00 per night. I had the best coffee I ever tasted there and the orange juice was divine.
There's a very nice outdoor market in town and we were having a great time walking up and down the stalls with me in the vanguard ordering stuff and my accountant husband figuring out the money pulling up the rear.
I had remembered something about kilos and pounds, one of which was double the other, but I mis-remembered. The almonds and pistachios and dried fruits were fantastic, so I went along ordering two kilos of everything thinking it was half a pound. Finally my husband catches up and says he can't carry any more, so please stop buying. We had four and half pounds of half a dozen or more items.
I've never got the hang of the metric weights (I would have made the same error in the market!) and I stick to my old fashioned pounds and ounces kitchen scales. I'll be very pleased to buy my cloth in yards instead of metres again. I don't think it is simply a matter of preferring what we grew up with because I think our decimalised money system is much better than the old 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound.
I think we'll just go on in our muddling English way and have a mixture of systems to please everyone - thank heavens.
BTW Whatever did you do with all those nuts?
Since we had a car, it wasn't a problem taking them with us. We took the long way from Madrid to Barcelona where picked up the train to Avignon and then the super fast TGV train to Paris where we visited our younger son who was having a ball in his junior year abroad.
As an aside: We took the train to Calais (I think) and then the hovercraft to Dover. When we got to the ticket window and heard English being spoken, it wounded like the music of the spheres and the heavenly chorus of angels.
We landed in Victoria station on a Friday night. Traffic was intense, but we picked up our rental car and off we went with no destination or reservations anywhere. We finally ended up in Guildford (we picked it because our daughter lives in Guilford CT).
And so began our excellent adventure through England and Scotland. Driving on the left turned out not to be as big a problem as changing gears with our left hand. There was many a bruised knuckle as we first sought to change gears with our right hand only to hit them on the door before we remembered that we had to do it leftie.
Dunno where the BBC got that idea, but there is NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER that the U.S. will get rid of imperial measurements in two years' time, and it's extremely unlikely in twenty years' time, either.
Like erp, I too learned the metric system decades ago as a schoolchild, and to date the only place where I've encountered it in common usage in America is in the military.
Metrics are also used in science and mechanics which is fine with me as I don't understand much of that esoterica anyway.
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