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brian mitchell · 08-02-2008, 10:07 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

(Nick Maclaren) wrote:

In article ,
brian mitchell writes:
| Sacha wrote:
| On 6/2/08 17:54, in article ,
| "Martin" wrote:
| Thank Gawd for the metric system.
|
| But it's so bland, so boring. Thank God for Ye Olde English, if only
| because it IS ours!
|
| Exactly. [ Accolades for Imperial measurements skipped. ]

But, as a mathematician...

It may well be otherwise with mathematicians, but for most the soul
makes its nest among the crevices of language rather than numbers.

After all, we used to be required to do that sort of conversion in
our heads, and some of us still can. Not as fast as I used to be able
to, but senility and ethanol may have something to do with that ....

The extraordinary uses some people put their heads to!
All praise to ethanol, which is well known to lends wings to the flight
of poetic imagination but apparently also halts the onrush of numbers
:-)