Even though I live near the Canadian border (hour and a half away), I get my Canada fix by listening to NPR, which rebroadcasts As It Happens via Public Radio International. (There is also a weekly spot every Wednesday morning with news from Canada produced by the local NPR affiliate here in Seattle, KUOW.)
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Frewen-Lord" <j...@frewston.plus.com> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 2:07:31 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [USMA:46374] Re: The Ultimate Muddle If the interview was being made for the benefit of Canadian listeners, then that would be the reason for converting the distance to km - few Canadians think in miles any more. And the CBC's pronunciation standards prescribe the correct pronunciation of kill-oh-meters. Didn't realise that As It Happens was still running! This was one of my favourite programs when I lived in Canada - must catch up with it. John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: ezra.steinb...@comcast.net To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:42 AM Subject: [USMA:46373] The Ultimate Muddle Our friends over at the UKMA have referred to the strange mixture of units used these days in the UK as the "metric muddle". Tonight I was listening to "As It Happens" from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and heard them interviewing the world's gravy wrestling champion. This chap is actually a barrister from Leicestershire who participates in a wide variety of odd sporting "events" to raise money for charities. His usage of measurement units turned out to be the quintessential metric muddle: diameter of the wrestling ring given in meters, height of the wrestlers given in feet and inches, weight of the wrestlers given in stones, running distance (for another event he participates in) given in kilometers, and the location of his home town from London (when asked by the interviewer for the benefit of Canadian listeners) in miles. How is anyone supposed to make any sense of all that? Oddly enough, once the interview had ended, the interviewer translated the distance Leicestershire is from London from miles to kilometers (pronounced KILL-oh-meters, which I liked :-) Go figure! Cheers, Ezra
