on 31.10.2000 02.27, Howard Ressel at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear Howard and All,
I received a call a few moments ago to say that an article of mine in a
national editorial journal 'Stylewise', had been taken up by the Brisbane
Courier-Mail.
Here is a draft of the article:
Imperial clich�s by Pat Naughtin
Nothing dates your speaker, your author � or you as editor � more than
references to feet, inches, or miles. When the Prime Minister or the Leader
of the Opposition suggests that an economic target was �missed by a mile.�
it has a similar effect to the sight of old cars in a movie. You might
assume that the rest of the content is also completely out-of-date.
Australia adopted the International System of Units (SI) as its preferred
(and legal) measuring method by passing The Weights and Measures Act 1960.
In short we went metric forty years ago. To put this into perspective I ask,
�Where were you in 1960?�.
As an editor, if you allow �I wouldn�t touch it with a ten foot pole� to go
unchallenged, you are providing evidence that your speaker�s or writer�s
mindset is in the late fifties � at best.
Recently, after giving a speech on the metric system in Australia, the
subject of old sayings was raised. I suggested that there were probably
hundreds of them, that they had proved to be quite persistent, but I felt
that they would die out eventually or be replaced by new metric sayings.
Subsequently I consulted numerous references and searched the Internet for
quotations, proverbs, sayings, and clich�s. I was surprised that I could
only find a small number that refer to measurement; there are probably less
than twenty in common use.
I suspect the ones that remain have some poetic quality, such as rhyme,
rhythm, or alliteration, or a strong visual image that contributes to their
currency. Eventually I divided my small collection into groups and added my
own (somewhat facetious and highly personal) thoughts on changing them to
SI.
Quotations
A pound of flesh ... (Shakespeare)
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile ... (Nursery Rhyme)
The lessons of Three Mile Island ... (Newspaper)
A bushel and a peck ... (Song)
It would be an extremely brave (or very foolish) person who would Bowdlerise
Shakespeare to read �A kilogram of flesh� or to rewrite the popular song as
�I love you a millilitre and a cubic metre�.
Sayings and proverbs
Give them an inch and they�ll take an ell (yard, mile, etc.).
Give them a gram and they�ll take a tonne.
I wouldn�t touch it with a ten foot pole.
I wouldn�t touch it with a five metre pole. (Coincidentally five metres is
very close to the length of the old English measuring pole.)
Alice felt ten feet tall.
Alice felt three metres tall.
Six foot under.
Two metres down.
Within an inch (or two) of death (the finish, the goal etc.).
Missed death by millimetres. The knife wound in her chest went close to her
heart, but missed by millimetres. The return to the bowler�s end missed by
millimetres.
Paint an inch thick.
The paint looked as though it was put on ten (or 50, or 167) millimetres
thick.
A miss is as good as a mile.
A millimetre miss is a kilometre miss.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
A gram of prevention is worth a tonne of cure.
Clich�s
He won�t budge an inch.
He won�t move a millimetre.
Go the extra mile.
Go the extra metre or Go the extra kilometre.
Missed by miles.
Missed by metres.
Yardstick.
A measure, a metre stick, or a metre measure.
To reach a milestone.
To reach a target. To reach a goal.
Milestones no longer physically exist as they have been replaced by
kilometre markers. In some country areas these have become known as �klick
sticks�.
Do the hard yards.
Do the sweeter metre.
In practical terms you can, as an editor, copy the practice of many film
producers who don�t use any cars in their films at all � unless the car�s
name is �Genevieve�, or it has machine guns behind its headlights. However
avoiding any reference to measurement at all is clearly a copout.
Alternatively editors can help protect their speakers and writers from
looking foolishly old-fashioned by being aware of the correct use of SI
units*. It�s very hard to believe that someone is modern and forward
thinking in (say) economics, when their measurement mindset is so clearly in
the fifties, and they are still �missing by miles�.
* See AGPS Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 1994, 5th Edition
pp. 200-207
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin CAMS
Geelong, Australia
PS The reference is to an Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS)
Style manual that is widely used in Australia.
PPS The return to the 'bowler's end refers to the game of cricket.
> There was an interesting article in a magazine called "World Highways"
> which is always 100% metric although its published in England. Even
> articles about US Construction are SI.
>
> Headline: "Going the Extra Mile"
>
> it was about asphalt plants.
>
> Guess some figures of speech will remain with us for awhile yet.
>
> Howard Ressel, Metric Manager
> New York State Department of Transportation, Region 4
>
>
