I got a reply to my letter, and I sent a reply to that: [his reply] Hi, thanks for writing. Why did it take so long, since this column appeared more than two weeks ago? Where did you see it?
Anyway, yes, I knew Le Gran K is the measuring stick for the pounds and ounces, and everything else you say is entirely true. It was a humorous column, poking fun at you meterheads -- and making the serious point that we have given up trying to get Americans to change their ways of measuring. [my reply] >Hi, thanks for writing. Thanks for responding. >Why did it take so long, since this column appeared >more than two weeks ago? Where did you see it? One of my fellow "meterheads" forwarded it to me. I noticed how old it was and wondered why there was the delay, too. >It was a humorous column, poking fun at >you meterheads -- and making the serious >point that we have given up trying to get >Americans to change their ways of measuring. I did get the sense that it was intended to be humorous, and in fact probably was for many of the readers. However, to me it seemed more disinformation than humor because it perpetuates some common misconceptions. I'm not sure who you mean by "we" when you said "we have given up trying to get Americans to change their ways of measuring." At any rate, it may not make any difference because metric will probably take root anyway as a consequence of living in a world that is 96% metric population-wise, and even something like 70-80% metric economically (and rising). Metric is fun to use, easier to understand, and entirely possible to learn (www.aros.net/~cos/learn.htm). Carl Sorenson
