Arrrggghhh! - Metric Stuff Up!

Fuel economy? What's that? I drive a bicycle and consistently average

Cheers! Rich

I noted today that the local price is 112.5, or ~$5.06 per imperial gallon. When I first bought fuel for my own car I paid $0.299 per gallon. Of course my pay was $1.25/hour. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

And since they were Canadian miles, that made the mpg even better. :-)

I doubt very much that I would come even within range of that! Gerry :-)} London, Canada

So, would you argue that Furlongs/Fortnight is not a valid measurement?....

Hah! - you dare Jest, these matters are of real concern......

Here in OZ, it is a local custom to give Xmas presents to people who you reckon have done a good job - a way of saying "thanks Mate" - people like the teacher at trade school who put up with your attempts to wreck machines (can be real spectacular if you put some total "lost the plot" stupidity into it...) so he, among others of similar ilk, are worthy , and deserving of the ritual OZ custom of giving....yep....Beer.

A simple transaction, one would think. Last day of term, drive down to local Beer place. Said, (to young smartarse, but only evident later)

"you have Crown Lagers in the half dozen packs"

(After much verbal gymnastic crap, Old Bull Young Bull ..rubbish...time wasting garbage for a simple transaction he finally said to the (obviously Neanderthal) customer in front of him...)

He said. "No, we dont have them any more, you need to buy six...."

(Gunner, Mate - I thought of you right then, thought.....WTF - total idiot...thought real hard about a definitely non Lefty response......)

I give up, cant cope with all this - Old Fart Syndrome, fer sure. Good to know I am not alone. And if you can cope with all this system duality, good luck to you. Just dont stuff up calculations like "Duh - the Mars thingy we got going REAL FAST and the Europeans did a lot of it and somehow we got mixed up between do we fire the braking rockets/ whatever at 3Km or 300ft.....yep, can cope with this one.....whatever the answer was, it was the wrong one.

Andrew VK3BFA

I once stopped into some random burger joint, and ordered a burger and a cola. (I didn't know if they had Coke or Pepsi, so I figured, whichever.)

The Kewl Kounter Kiddie said, "We don't have cola, just Pepsi."

Apparently she'd never heard of Pepsi-COLA. ?:-/

Cheers! Rich

I was once working with someone who was from Israel, but spoke English really well and was on a green card or maybe naturalized (think Ziva); anyway, she was my supervisor on this one job, and she says, "Well, there's these two things that need to be done, so you get to pick which one first, which would you prefer?" or some such. There wasn't any difference between the two things, so I said, "Meh, it's six of one and a half-dozen of the other." She said, "What does that mean?"

Apparently she'd never heard the expression. Have you ever tried to explain something like that to a non-native English speaker?

Thanks, Rich

There is a story that the Japanese responded to a July 1945 surrender request with a phrase that could mean either to think very little of something or 'think nothing of it", the exact opposite. Look how that turned out.

jsw

In my extended family we abstract that phrase one step further: "Seis de uno"!

--Winston

I tried explaining to a Cambodian girl that 'oca loca' wasn't really an insult, but it was too many levels of translation.

jsw

She thought you were criticizing her footwear?

--Winston

old US made lenses had focal lengths specified in inches.