Re: OT: we quaint Brits (was: those irregular prepositions)

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:52:16 -0400, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
wrote:

> [W]hile the chef
> in the fancy restaurant downtown no doubt weighs his dry ingredients,
> your typical home cook uses volumetric measure instead (and that, of
> course, in the pre-metric English system).
Or, rather, in the pre-metric US system, where 16 ounces make both a pound
and a pint (of 473.18ml), as opposed to the 20-ounce Imperial pint (of
568.26ml), though the mass ounces and pounds are, I think, identical.

The US system has always struck me as more sensible, but the UK as
superior. Maybe it's a beer thing.

Rather amusing (to me) is the US saying "A pint's a pound, the whole world
'round", which is so counterfactual that it made me very nearly splutter
with rage the first time I heard it.



Paul

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