Dear Mr. Dickson, I read with interest the story on your radio station's pulling an Orson Welles-style announcement concerning the metric system in Indiana for April Fool's Day (http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060331/News01/60331008).
True, the current orientation of the American public is to laugh at any possible changeover to the metric system of measurement, but I assure you that it is no joke. In 1988, federal law established the metric system as the preferred system of measurement for trade and commerce in the U.S. Also, your state is one of 46 states that now allow certain state-regulated products to be labeled in metric units only. And even our late president, Ronald Reagan, was "thinking metric" with some tongue-in-cheek accuracy when he said, "I'm 75 years old, but that's only 24 Celsius." One day, Indiana will "wake up" to find itself a metric state, but only after the completion of a coordinated, national changeover period that will involve the other 49 states, too. Thank you for a clever radio event. Sincerely, Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Editor, "Metric Today" U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] "There are two cardinal sins, from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness." ---Franz Kafka
