Re: Household Algebra

Paul Dormer <prd@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:

jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid (Joy Beeson) wrote:

I did check that I have a cup of pecans.

That's an oddity to UK cooks.  You rarely ever measure things in
cups.  Liquid are measured by volume - usually millilitres - and dry
goods are measured by weight - grams.

I'm American, but I prefer the UK system.  When I look up nutrition
information for broccoli, it gives me the information per cup.  I have
no idea what's meant by a cup of that fractal vegetable.  It can vary
by a factor of four or more depending on how chopped up it is, and on
how mashed in it is.

But then I also think the British long scale (billion = 10^12, etc.)
made more sense than the American short scale (billion = 10^9).  But
I understand that the British have since adopted the American system.

In related news, I recently won a bet that I could name all the
English/British monarchs of the past thousand years.  (It's easier
than it was at the turn of the century, since there were so many
between the year 1000 and 1024, whom I no longer need to remember.)

This July will be 1100 years since Athelstan's accession.  Whatever
happened to fandom's Athelstan, aka Ray Palmer (not the Shaver Mystery
Ray Palmer)?  I'd like to congratulate him on the anniversary.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.