I had an interesting thought this morning — and it’s probably because I haven’t yet had my first cup of coffee. The metric system. We don’t use it here in the United States. There was some effort in the 1970s to metricify the United States and join the rest of the world in solidarity, butContinue reading “On Metrifying the United States”
Tag Archives: Metric System
On Ridiculous Measures
I received recently an e-mail, purporting to contain a list of spurious weights and measures. Bizarre scales. Never, ever, possibly used scales. Nothing like furlongs per fortnight or anything like that. But the “sheppey,” defined as “the closest distance at which sheep remain picturesque,” or roughly 7/8 of a mile. (Note to self: Use theContinue reading “On Ridiculous Measures”