On page A11 of The Washington Post, Saturday, March 22, 2008, was this letter to the editor.
"Fish Story "Following your advice ["Poaching, With Particulars, Can Handle Fish Perfectly," Food, March 12], I was eager to try to cook fish by immersing it in boiling water weighing three to four times as much, then taking it off the stove to cook as the water cools. "However, it would have been helpful if you had said how to determine the amount of water to use, e.g. by simply including the weight of a cup of water. I assume you did not mean to suggest one should use three to four liquid ounces of water for each ounce of fish, which would actually be much easier to do. - Donald Polk, Washington" - It would have been even easier had the fish been described in kg. A 2 kg fish would have taken six to eight liters of water. Carleton --------------- Following your advice ["Poaching, With Particulars, Can Handle Fish Perfectly," Food, March 12], I was eager to try to cook fish by immersing it in boiling water weighing three to four times as much, then taking it off the stove to cook as the water cools. However, it would have been helpful if you had said how to determine the amount of water to use, e.g. by simply including the weight of a cup of water. I assume you did not mean to suggest one should use three to four liquid ounces of water for each ounce of fish, which would actually be much easier to do. - Donald Polk Washington -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of James Frysinger Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 18:47 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40661] Why I'm worried The innumeracy of the American public worries me. I picked up some Frontline Top Spot today for my dog and my cat. The thirty-ish lady in the office (receptionist? Vet Tech?) said that I could save a lot of money by buying the extra-large-dose ampules and using a syringe to meter it out. She gave me a syringe barrel (no needle) and a plastic medicine bottle to hold the remainder of the ampule contents until the following month. The ampule is actually a "blister pack applicator" that one snaps open but cannot reshut. According to her the dose rate for all cats is "half a cc" and for my dog's size it's "a bit over a cc and a half". She wrote this down for me on a label she put on the medicine bottle. I noticed that she had written for the cat ".05cc" and for the dog "1.34cc". I pointed our her misplaced decimal point in the first instance and commented "and the second one must be a little less than you told me since 1.34 is less than one and a half." I got a blank stare in return. I also said that "cc" was archaic and that even the FDA was now using "mL". But she could, I told her, use "cm3" with the 3 raised if she wanted. She said that if they did not use "cc" most of their customers would not know what they meant. The syringe barrel (labeled Pfizer) that she gave me shows that the scale is in "mL". The ampule gives the contents only in fluid ounces! Specifically, this pack of medicine contains 0.136 fl oz of medicine. That, of course, is 4 mL. Jim -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (H) 931.657.3107 (C) 931.212.0267
