Oh bother, &[EMAIL PROTECTED], I forgot that when replying on this list I
have to revisit my 'To' field, so David got this instead of the list,
silly me , sorry David,, :---

This is a combined comment, off topic but good fun nevertheless :-

 Fernando wrote:
>> Now, I hate when I see something like "2 yards, 2 feet, 5 inches and
>> (the stroke of mercy)  1/8" -- It takes me several seconds to figure out
>> how tall that person is!

But in England, possibly in the UK, we would never measure a person
this way ! (Just to confuse things )
For example I am 5ft 7in ( pronounced "five foot seven" ),
not 1yd 2ft 7in. :-)
A loftier person might be 6foot9, never 2yd and 9inches

>> By the way: does "stroke of mercy" make sense in English?

Then Dave said :-
>Yes, but we really never translate it - from the French! "Coup de grace"

Thanks Dave, now I know what Fernando meant ! I would have said - No it
doesn't make sense, we use it in the French words.

Now for some nit picking :-) ,
Although that may be a precise translation, would a more accurate translation
be " final blow " ? As she is used in the English ?
I dont see where std. deviation would help there though :-)

Anglophone or anglophile it matters not when one is a father, when
daughter said in conversation that she got wet running the few meters to
the 'phone box. Gosh, I felt my age, because I would have run a few yards.

In the lab I am quite happy with kilos, mm., degC (oops, sorry, delete the
deg, new political correctness needed there as well ! ) etc but at home and
in the garden they don't compute ! Give me a degF then I know if it is time
to get the sunlounger out or not.

Had my little bit of fun, now I'll shut up again for a while.
Malcolm,
In SW England,
spring has sprung ( at last ) and
my sundial is working again ( at last)

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