> I think you implied they are when you said:
> 
> 1) If I started expressing stuff in m, cm, kg etc
> when imperial tends to get
> spoken it won't be long until I get called "Mr
> Professor" or "Dr Brainbox".
> Hardly an insult but worth pondering over.

Last night, in Toronto, a social club that I belong to
was sponsoring an event attended by quite a few US
visitors.  One of the US attendees asked how far it
was from Toronto to London (Ontario).  

The traditional Canadian answer would be to say "two
hours", rather than give a distance, but I replied
back to him that it was about "200 kilometres".  He
gave me a slightly puzzled look and asked how far that
was in miles.  I gave him the same puzzled look back
and, politely, said "I don't know, we don't use
miles."  But, I did add that the speed limit was 100
km/h.  I think he figured out that it would take him
about 2 hours to drive there, going the speed limit,
of course.  

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