Having spent a week in France last month, I enjoyed the same thing. My garment bag zipper failed and I needed some light rope to tie it together and it felt good to go into a hardware store and say, "J'ai besoin de cinq metres de corde, s'il vous plait."
Carleton P.S. McDonald's: In France it's the Royal; in the UK the quarter pounder. And the McDonald's in France have beer. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Trusten Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 18:51 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:33511] German measurement practices I just returned from two weeks in Germany, and had a chance to inspect a wholly metric country for the first time. As you might expect in a country that never knew WOMBAT,my German friend's speedometer was scaled in km/h only, and the odometer in kilometers only. Interestingly, she had a tachometer which was styled in "x1000 min (-1)" (minutes to the negative first power) instead of "x100 RPM." Speed limit signs are similar to the ones that just went up in Ireland. Berlin's famous KaDeWe department store sells loose goods by the kilogram only. However, my friend admitted to knowing about a "pfund" of 500 g. Germany flies in the face of U.S. metric volume packaging. For example, beverages are labeled in liters only (Coca Cola and bottled water are bottled in 0,2 ml, 0,5 ml, and 0,7 ml, using the comma as a decimal marker. There are no reference to milliliters. Some beverage products were bottled in 0,75 l. The uppercase symbol for the liter was not used, but the "l" was of such an unusual style that it could not be confused with the numeral "1." But, whatever the difference in practice, it was a delight for me to see the LIVING metric system! It was just as simple as we American metricationists have imagined it to be. -- Paul Trusten, R.Ph. 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] "There are two cardinal sins, from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness." ---Franz Kafka
