Hear, hear. Where I sit is about 20 km from 3 Mile Island, and that's just fine.
Nat PS Assuming 3 Mile Island stays under control <g> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gillmann, Ralph Sent: Thursday, 2003 June 05 15:22 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:25946] RE: [USMA:25939] Quotations, proverbs, sayings, and clich�s I think it's best not to "update" old sayings and quotations. There is really no need to and people are sensitive about it. For example in the USA, we don't use "score" to mean 20 anymore but we wouldn't dream of changing Abraham Lincoln's "Four score and seven". We don't literally have "milestones" anymore but that doesn't prevent the figurative sense. New expressions reflecting SI will naturally arise when SI is in common use. I'd like to see a list of such expressions (translated into English) from SI countries. Ralph Gillmann -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 9:36 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [USMA:25939] Quotations, proverbs, sayings, and clich�s Dear Joe, on 2003/06/02 10.49, Joseph B. Reid at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In your posting, you quoted Paul Trusten (from USMA 25892) as saying: >> Invariably, discussions of >> metrication in the US deteriorate into the old jokes >> of metricating popular sayings as well as the standard of measurement >> (I hold >> my nose as I repeat one of them: "Give him 2.54 cm and he'll take >> 1.608 m"). Some time ago, I wrote a piece on this topic for the 'Australian Style', an editorial newsletter. The version I include here is updated from the original. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia Imperial clich�s 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 You might assume that the rest of the content is also completely out-of-date.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, and it formally 'went metric' from 1970. In short Australia went metric thirty years ago. To put this into a personal perspective I ask, 'Where were you in 1970?'. As an editor, if you allow 'I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole' to go unchallenged, you are providing readers with evidence that your speaker's or writer's mindset is firmly embedded in the 1970s 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 that they would 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 Australian 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. Give them a millimetre and they'll take a kilometre. 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 an extra metre. 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. Note: Milestones no longer physically exist as they have been replaced by kilometre markers. In some rural areas these have become known as 'klick sticks'. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A journey of a thousand kilometres begins with a single millimetre. 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 an editorial 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 so clearly rests more than thirty years ago, in the seventies, and they are still 'missing by a mile'. Pat Naughtin * See AGPS Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 2002, 6th Edition Ch. 11
