I've heard "skellington" used humorously, but not seriously. I did know someone (over 50 years ago, in my home town of Scarborough, Yorkshire) who genuinely thought "register" was "redchester." Apparently, he also thought the latter was the correct spelling. One organization that's very good about using the correct pronunciation of kilometer (and many other words) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. They're much better than the BBC in that respect. Last night, I watched a NOVA documentary (in high definition), Walk to Beautiful, about women in Ethiopia being treated for fistulas (a major problem there). An English doctor referred to someone's height as five-feet-three -- another example of dumbing down for a US audience. I think distances (where they were given in distance units) were in miles. However, most distance references used walking times (hence the title). One of the women being treated walked for 23 hours to reach the hospital. Bill _____
Bill Potts Roseville, CA <http://metric1.org/> http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 06:18 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40916] Re: Alternate meaning of the word "metric" or its plural "metrics" There's not much difference between the UK and US on that one - most people here would say "kill -OMM- ittah". Another favourite is "Skeleton" which, some how, becomes "Skellington". Thanks for the different view points on "mirror" by the way - seems that one is a US thing (ie differences therein) rather than just a US/UK difference such as route (root, rahwt) would be. <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000005ukm/direct/01/>
