On Tue, 20 May 2008 17:24:17 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Le Forgeron <jgr### [at] freefr> wrote:
>> And you did not even talk about time & liquid & weight... A gallon, a
>> ton or just a fortnight ?
> 
>> In Montreal or Los angeles... or Sydney!
> 
>   Yeah, I love it that "ounce" means different things depending on
>   whether
> you are talking about solids or fluids, "mile" means different things on
> land than on sea, and "gallon" means different things depending on
> whether you are in the US or the UK, not to talk that it also means
> different things depending on whether we are measuring solids or
> liquids...

Well the difference between a US and an imperial gallon is anecdotally 
easy to explain - evaporation over long sea voyages.  How much truth 
there is in that, though, I don't know.

But a funny story - had a friend come over to the US from the UK several 
years ago for a show in Atlanta.  Found a nice English-style pub (at 
least the closest he could find in walking distance of the conference 
center) and ordered a pint of Guinness.  The waitress asked him if he'd 
like a "big pint or a small pint".  He said, "a pint" with a look of 
"what are you, crazy?" (and you'd have to know the guy to know how funny 
that is).  She figured out from his accent that he meant an imperial 
pint. ;-)

Jim

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