It's precisely the precision of the metric system that turns me off. If Robert Frost had said I have promises to keep / and kilometers to go before I sleep / and kilometers to go before I sleep, it wouldn't have conveyed the roadweariness of miles. Kilometers are definite. Miles are indefinite. Poetry is what's lost in metrication. Some examples:
Saturday, September 1, 2012
In Defense of Standard Measurement
Three-hundred and thirteen years after the nativity of the metric system in revolutionary France, only three nations stubbornly cling to the old standard system - Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States. Other nations agree to the (quite sensible) subdivision of the time and space into tens, hundredths, thousandths. But I love standard. It's annoying, hard to remember, and makes our tools not work on foreign cars but it is poetic.
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According to OED, elfin is the correct form of the adjective meaning "of elves", as oaken is "of oaks", and twiggen is ... -
The sea has no oranges, Seville no love. Sunburned girl, give me a parasol to shelter from your fiery eyes. You said pececillos but ...
Awesome! I laughed out loud. And seriously, you are so write about how 'miles' sounds indefinite as compared to 'kilometers.' Good show.
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