FoxTrot by Bill Amend for February 22, 2015
Transcript:
Peter: It kills me that the U.S. doesn't use the metric system. It's easy to learn, the math is way simpler, and essentially every country on earth uses metric units, except us. Plus, think of what it'd do for THESE. Steve: Dude, they're not gonna change foot-long hot dogs into meter-long hot dogs. Peter: A boy can dream, can't he?
Boots at the Boar Premium Member almost 10 years ago
They will become 30 cm hotdogs and they’ll short you the half centimeter.
Pretzelcoatl almost 10 years ago
Try convincing your parents to travel to Canada, Peter. They’ve got both hot dogs and the metric system.
Arbitrary almost 10 years ago
“In America, they don’t call it a .113398 kilogrammer with cheese”
-They don’t call it a .113398 kilgrammer with cheese? Why not?
“Well they don’t use the metric system, so they don’t have kilograms.”
-What do they call it then?
“A ‘quarter pounder with cheese’.”
-“Quarter pounder with cheese”. Huh.
Arbitrary almost 10 years ago
Dat’s de joke.
Pedmar Premium Member almost 10 years ago
The only reason the US has not gone to the metric system is that people are afraid of change. They are afraid of the initial adjustment period.
What they fail to see is that, eventually, people will get used to the new system and everything will be fine.
The metric system is much easier to use. It would make sense to change.
Pithy (yeah, right) almost 10 years ago
In Canada, produce prices in grocery stores are still posted in large letters “per pound”, and in much smaller letters “per kilogram”, but the receipt generally only shows the price per kilogram. It’s also quite common still to give people’s heights in feet and inches, and weights in pounds. Being so close to the U.S. may have something to do with it.
P51Strega almost 10 years ago
Hard to change what people are used to. I bet you’re all typing your comments on a QWERTY key board. A layout designed to SLOW typists down so the typewriter keys wouldn’t jam. Why haven’t you switched to a more efficient layout?
jbmlaw01 almost 10 years ago
Every time the government tells us we have to do something because it is good for us, the people rebel. And the elitists who impose the change don’t understand why. Free markets reflect the wishes of all. Unfortunately the government manages our markets here in the US.
Gregory.r.hart almost 10 years ago
@P51stregaI have.
OldestandWisest almost 10 years ago
If YARD long hot dogs were a common item, they might change them into meter long hot dogs after we changed systems, but not foot long, the difference in size is just too great. Sorry, Peter.
assrdood almost 10 years ago
The metric system IS here and has obsoleted my lifetime collection of wrenches. I have now begun collecting metric wrenches. Whatta waste!
felinefan55 Premium Member almost 10 years ago
I can remember in 4th grade our teacher saying that we would be switching over to the metric system. That was 1980. 35 years later and it still hasn’t happened.
zippykatz almost 10 years ago
Why isn’t time on the metric system? Add these minutes and seconds: 1:31 + 1:42 + 1:15. You’re not going to get 4 :28 until you move 60 seconds to the hour column. Clumsy when you’re trying to see how many minutes worth of music you can add to a disc or tape [yeah, I said tape :>]
wvrr almost 10 years ago
The metric system has been slow to completion in Canada because of the influx of US material. TV, magazines, movies etc. All of us in The Great White North ‘speak’ both languages.
Smaller weights and measures may have been slow to catch on but ‘miles’ disappeared fast as did ‘tons’. Temperature changes were adopted universally almost over night. My furnace cools down to 17 at night. I can’t get my head around a summer day being 75 any more even though I grew up with that.
drdougsteward almost 10 years ago
When are the clock and the calendar going to go metric?
yangeldf almost 10 years ago
sure, we’ll switch to metric, as soon as you replace every bolt, rivet, and panel in the country since they’re all made with standard parts.
Jules934 almost 10 years ago
…the math is way simpler….. First we need to learn the language system.
Say What Now‽ Premium Member almost 10 years ago
The reason grocery stores post price per pound in Canada is because $2 per pound looks better than $4.40 per kilogram.
english.ann almost 10 years ago
We DO use the metric system on at least some soft drinks; you get more soda pop in a 2-liter bottle than you do from a quart bottle. Pepsi 2-liter bottles contain almost 2 more ounces of pop than a quart bottle would.
phoenixnyc almost 10 years ago
As opposed to pounds and twices? :grin:
barefoottech over 9 years ago
The metric system has nothing to do with being defined by either the weight or volume of a bucket of water. It is based on the METRE. The original definition of the metre was 10000KM was the distance from the north pole to the equator. From that 1CM cubed gives you a Millilitre. 1000Millilitre = Litre. 1 litre water weighs 1KG. And so on.
kate Premium Member over 9 years ago
The metric system sucks. Everything is measured in quarter inches, yards and half miles. No handy measurement like a foot. The numbers are huge. For example: a piece of paper is 15,267 × 21,895 centimeters instead of 8 1/2 × 11. We the USA. We don’t follow trends, we make them!
heatherjasper over 9 years ago
The US, Liberia, and Burma are the only countries in the world not using the metric system.
Ωmega about 4 years ago
LOL
eipxrhS about 4 years ago
Man, Peter has some good dreams.
SuperCharged5- about 3 years ago
liberia uses the imperial system