"Trish Brown" wrote in message
news:AeednbYR7-YLA2janZ2dnUVZ_uqvnZ2d@internode...

So please don't tell us elder persons to forget or change that which was
learned at *great cost* in our childhoods! Mumblemumble... one thousand
seven hundred and sixty yards, one mile... grumble... sixteen fluid
ounces, one pint... crumble... twenty one shillings in a guinea... and
that bloody-well baker and his dozen!!! Aaaarrrggghhh!!!!

but that is precisely why the metric system is so beautiful. to be frank, it
drives me nuts when old people (and americans) don't use proper
measurements - because metric is so easy, that to not use it makes no sense;
so if they use it & i don't know what they're talking about, it's well
beyond annoying (people don't get round speaking shakespearean english any
more, now do they??). metric is so beautifully easy that i didn't even
realise until i had kids doing maths homework. then, it's ease becomes
screamingly obvious, and to use anything else cannot really be justified!!

having said that, it would be cool if metric had some sort of equivalent of
something like an inch. a small measurement to indicate, well, smallness,
that is just one thing (iyswim). it's the only thing it lacks, really.

Finally, I happen to do quilting as my other hobby. I have to inform you
that the whole, entire quilting world thinks in yards and inches. The
effort required to convert between metric and imperial measures when
cutting out tiny strips of fabric is enough to send you *mad*!

there are only three nations on earth that don't officially use metric. two
of them are so obscure i can't think what they are. the other would declare
war on you for saying metric's obviously better ;-) i'll take the risk,
though - metric's better.
kylie