Cool! Chucked in "controversy" and was pleased with the result!
Nice find.
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How is it helpful to say "controversy or controversy", and "kilometre or kilometre", without saying which is correct?
(I prefer controversy and kilometre, but it says the British pronunciation of controversy is the other one.)
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Well, since kilometre is effectively a French word, I shall simply say it in a French accent. Then it *must* be correct, because invariably if it's French everyone else is wrong anyway.
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Some say potahto, I say potato.
Some say tomahto, I say tomato.
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"Some say potahto"
Perhaps, but I've never met anyone who does ;-0
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>> "Some say potahto"
>>
>> Perhaps, but I've never met anyone who does ;-0
Silliest lyric ever written, no-one has ever said po tah toe.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 11:16
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"Silliest lyric ever written"
Not by a long chalk - What can compete with:
'Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it'
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thats entirely possible, not common I grant you, but its possible. You'd be hissed off if the cake you baked and left out to cool had got soaked in a downpour.
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Holy heck! Originally recorded by Richard Harris (yes, that one!) apparently.
Well, either that or it's the most convincing wikifiddle of all time......(!)
You're right though, it probably is the daftest thing ever written.
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>> "Silliest lyric ever written"
>>
>> Not by a long chalk - What can compete with:
>>
>> 'Someone left the cake out in the rain
>> I don't think that I can take it
>> 'Cause it took so long to bake it'>>
>>
Wasn't McArthur Park a US WWII General?
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>> >> "Silliest lyric ever written"
Silliest lyric.....Nah ! That was Guy Marks.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEoLFkT-SKQ
Made the charts as well !
Ted
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>> (I prefer kilometre,
I prefer miles, because roadside signs are (mostly) in miles and speed limits are in miles per hour. After all, this is Britain. N'est-ce pas?
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We ex-pats tend to call kilometres 'clicks'.
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>> We ex-pats tend to call kilometres 'clicks'.
'orrible americanism
Whats wrong with "kays"
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I agree, L'es.
It was noticeable to me on our just completed 1500 mile jaunt around the UK though that nearly every roadside sign of the "turn ahead" ilk uses metres now, including things like National Trust signs and so forth, not just handwritten Joe's Caff ones. My only problem is that my mind initially always reads the "m" as miles, and 150 miles to the snack bar seems a little extreme.
I don't much care, I'd just like some consistency. The BBC have fun in their documentaries - there's nearly always a mixture in the same programme. "The wall was two metres high, and was three kilometres from the crater, where ten foot waves were crashing..."
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 10:58
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After 10 years in a country which uses km. I still find it easier to envisage distances expressed in that blooming foreign measure.
Now, I'm in the UK, I have my satnav set to miles rather than km. but "turn right in 0.6 of a mile" does not bring up an instant idea of distance, "whereas turn right in 700 m." gets me looking for the turn at pretty well the correct moment.
I even know what a kilo of most foods looks like and tend to order in kilos rather than lbs.
Last edited by: Roger on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 13:46
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I'm just the opposite. I can envisage weights and distances in imperial but am always "converting" when it's the other way about.
I've made some strides now - I don't ask for a quarter when buying cheese any more, for example. I ask for 113 grammes.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 13:56
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>> I've made some strides now - I don't ask for a quarter when buying cheese
>> any more, for example. I ask for 113 grammes.
>>
I can't imagine someone wanting only 113g of cheese, unless they just wanted it to bait a mouse trap!
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>>
>> I can't imagine someone wanting only 113g of cheese, unless they just wanted it to
>> bait a mouse trap!
>>
When baiting a trap, always leave room for the mouse.
A bit like remembering to give enough rope.
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Buying cheese in increments of 113g, 226g, and 454g isn't really buying in to metrication, is it.
I suspect that is the droll snail's point ;)
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>> Buying cheese in increments of 113g, 226g, and 454g isn't really buying in to metrication,
>> is it.
>>
>> I suspect that is the droll snail's point ;)
>>
No, I meant that 113g of cheese is barely one mouthful so hardly worth buying.
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I ran a Condor motorbike in the UK for a while, the speedo was only in KPH. I have also toured in Europe on a BMW with an MPH only speedo.
A quick conversion was needed in both cases. I managed ok...I think a six was involved somewhere. I knew 30/50 mph was 50/100 kph and worked it out from there.
Ted
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30/50 = 50/80 surely?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 15:20
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>> 30/50 = 50/80 surely?
I was going to say that... I was taught that a kilometre is roughly five-eighths of a mile.
Just think of all the speeding motorists Ted must have let off when he was doing those conversions... it'a an ill wind that blows no one any good, eh?
:o}
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>> >> 30/50 = 50/80 surely?
>>
Mea culpa, Typo. I was thinking about summat else.
I meant to type 60/100.
I looked at the speedo in the Vitara earlier......you'd have to have eyes like a outhouse rat to see the kph digits. I'll have to mug up on the arithmetic if I take it sur le continent !
Ted
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 22 Jun 13 at 16:51
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...I even know what a kilo of most foods looks like and tend to order in kilos...
And there's an important point. I know we tend to make fun of Roger for his 'Kippery and modernophobia (and will continue to do so - have no fear there, old son) but he's lived with the metric system and found he can work with it.
So if we'd just gone for it in a big bang in the early 1970s, we wouldn't still have these muddling, confused old units (not you this time, Roger) getting in the way. People would have just got used to them and got on with something more important.
}:---)
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I haven't even got as far as calculating in only miles. After 60 years I still compare any distance to the 12 miles between Wiveliscombe and Taunton, and the villages in between.
For example, if I see 'somewhere 8km' on a signpost I think 'OK, that's about five miles so it's only the same as from home to Preston Bowyer'.
This system hasn't let me down yet.
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That's your groat's worth is it WdB?
Worth a guinea in anyone's money.
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Almost all (British) lorries show speed most clearly in km/h and distance covered in km only. They usually have the equivalent in miles buried somewhere in a menu but default back to km after a restart. This means truckers are usually pretty good at instantaneous miles/kms conversions.
E.g. I did 509km today going to Csrdiff and back, which is a bit over 310 miles in old money.
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Pronunciation - Crankcase
