Martin:

Rather than beverages, you should probably say "wine and spirits." All of us
must get tired of the triple-labeling of other beverages (with both quarts +
fluid ounces and just fluid ounces, in addition to the correct L or mL).

As I make friends with more and more recent immigrants, I find they're very
pleased to find that I discuss things in metric terms. Not having been
exposed to US Customary or Imperial in childhood, they find learning it to
be awkward and confusing (no news here, of course). And, of course, nobody
(other than people like us) reassures them that there is no legal
requirement for consumers to know US Customary. We have neighbors from
Uzbekistan, whom I encourage to continue to think in and use metric units. I
think we can maybe persuade them to be ambassadors for what is after all the
country's legal measurement standard for the purpose of defining US
Customary values-in addition to being the only legal standard in the
pharmaceutical and wine and spirits fields.

OK, I've told everyone here what everyone here already knows. However, my
implicit call to action, above, may be productive (if only one small step at
a time).

Greetings to all those who used to see me here regularly.

Bill Potts

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf
Of c...@traditio.com
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 11:19
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:53532] "8 Things About American that Might Surprise Visitors"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/25/odd-things-about-america_n_4603713.
html

"The United States is one of three countries that doesn't use the Metric 
System."

So we get that half-truth repeated again.  Cute, I suppose, but not 
accurate.  As we have discussed here before, the U.S. is not non-metric. 
It is legally metric and is in the provess of transition to the metric 
system, with many industries already full converted (pharmaceutical, 
beverages, etc.).

Those who constantly repeat the "non metric" half truth would have to 
include Canada, Britain, and several other countries that are also in the 
process of transition.

Martin Morrison
USMA "Metric Today" Columnist

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