Tonight we took our 16 month old cat, Tiger, to the vet for her yearly shots. Aside from the fact that she nearly took the doctor out in the process of getting them (this cat does NOT like going to the vet), I noted with dismay how she was weighed. The scale is electronic, reads in decimal, and has a switch that changes between lb and kg. Despite the fact that medicines are dosed by kg, the vet's office always weighs in pounds for the benefit of the unwashed.
I asked to have her weight in kg first. 4.16.
Then the girl moved the switch to lb. 9.04. "Nine pounds, four ounces," she said.
$%^%$%^%#@@&*!?#**$
I asked the vet about it. "Oh, that's nine pounds, four ounces," he said.
Wonder what he does when the weight shows 9.27 lb. "Nine pounds, 27 ounces?" I doubt it.
The Dumbing Down of America proceeds apace. They don't even know the system they claim is familiar to them. Maybe we need a scale that weighs in vulgar fractions, like the old stock market figures.
Carleton MacDonald
www.buzzflash.com
