Lb & Oz

Detritus

<p>Very shocked and over the moon to see it but the Fruit and Veg stall next to Finsbury Park Station on Wells Terrace only had the goods marked up in Lb & Oz didn't see a Kg at all.</p><p>I was a happy man when I could ask for a pound of tomatoes and know what I was talking about.</p>

andy

When I was very young (very young), I was sent to the corner shop with a list by my mum, which I read to the shopkeeper. I remember asking him for 'two lubs of potatoes' a few times before he asked me to hand him the list.

Detritus

Its like 4 candles and fork handles.

vetski

@Detritus, got any o's?

Detritus

<p>It's strange how words can be misconstrued.</p><p>I asked Miss Annie a few weeks ago if she knew where I could hire a Tranny from. After she had stopped laughing she told me that it didn't mean a van as it does in Leeds.</p><p>But she did give me a few odd looks for the next couple of days.</p><p>I never really got the Two Ronnies until I was an adult and could understand the writing better.</p>

RedSturgeon

I feel desperately unpatriotic and disloyal, but I've always rather liked the simplicity of working in base 10.<br><br>I think legally people selling fruit and veg always need to display price per kg, but can display that alongside price per pound. But perhaps the Wells Terrace people take the gamble on LB Islington having better things to do than quibble over weighing systems... <br><br>Oddly in super-metric France, people still use 'pounds/livres' informally, (to refer to 500g - which isn't far off a pound).<br><br>I was schooled entirely on the metric system so perhaps it's that, but being able to shift a decimal place to the left or right where necessary always seemed rather more... [desperately searches for a word less pejorative than 'sensible', 'rational', 'logical'] <br><br>I confess I wouldn't want to buy beer outside the Imperial system though...<br>

Mirandola

@RedSturgeon. You're struggling because the metric system is more sensible, rational and logical. I get that the imperial one is quaint. 

vetski

I like decimal for money, but still find it difficult to cook in metric. All the basics I've memorised over the years - pastry, sponge cake, roasting times - just don't convert easily!

miss annie

<p>I measure everything in like wood, fabric etc. in imperial in my head, then convert it when I'm buying it. A yard is more or less a metre so it's easy.</p><p> Although everything in supermarkets is labelled in metric it's still packaged in imperial - milk is packaged in pints, flour and butter in pounds, it's just got funny metric numbers on it.</p>

vetski

Milk yes, but flour is 500g or 1 kg, and butter is 250g or 500g - highly inconvenient!

Detritus

<p>Miss Annie is a fabric monster and she was talking about a fat quarter a measurement in fabric. </p><p>I have only ever heard a fat quarter used in drugs reference. </p><p>It must have crossed over at some point, I would like to know how.</p>

andy

Shipping containers (which are probably the most modern of modern things) are measured in TEUs.<div><br></div><div>TEU stands for twenty-foot equivalent units. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit</div>;

vetski

<P>I know (and adore) fabric fat quarters, but what's a drug fat quarter? Maybe ask Miss Annie to ask Mark Forsyth if he knows how it crossed over and which came first? He might give her the same funny look she gave you over the tranny rental issue, though!</P>

miss annie

A normal size pack of butter is a tiny bit over half a pound and a small bag of flour is just over a pound so it's easy.

vetski

I know, but I'm a culinary Luddite - I miss the good old days when needing 8oz of butter for baking didn't necessitate faffing around trimming off the extra 20-odd grams!

Papa

@Detritus, I've always loved the fact that kids brought up with only a metric system and no understanding of any other have no problem buying and dealing weed in imperial<br>

Detritus

<p>I know what you mean, its just a twenty bag now, when I was in the USA walking into my like local smoke shop was like stepping back in time nothing was in metric.</p><p>I know my height in feet and inches but not got a clue of it in cm. </p>