h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a useful unit-of-measure the DDB is! People somehow understand the nature and size of a double-decker-bus - so it can be used to fix quantities very easily.

Perhaps you can measure everything this way ?
Even measurements which are not based on length or size?

How about 'as loud as 20 DDBs'
Or as fast as a DDB ?

Furthermore, one can start to use the DDB as a standard unit for measurements, similies, metaphors and comparisons of any kind - even absurd and abstract ones...
Eg:
'50 cubic DDBs of sharp sand',
'as late as a DDB',
'as red as 5 DDBs',
'as tasty as 1.5 DDBs',
'he was as drunk as 12 DDBs',
'2.5 DDBs of latent heat',
'1.5x10E6 DDBs of complexity'

BTW: Sorry if I went off at a tangent. I enjoyed the Dinorwig article very much.

Thanks Uncle Ghengis! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'd have to agree that the double decker bus is a tremendously useful comparative measure: it's big enough to be impressive, but small enough to need an impressive number of them. But I'm afraid I'll have to question what you're doing with your time if you're seriously going to compare things to the taste of the Clapham omnibus, let alone 1.5 of them...

And thinking of my local fleet of double deckers, "as fast as a DDB" would be about as fast as a small snail, or the speed of a group of seven people blocking the pavement ahead of you. That's assuming they can get started at all.

It is a trifle 'absurd', isn't it?

(That would be about 2.2x10E9 DDBs of absurdity.)
And also quite improbable!

You really have got too much time on your hands, haven't you? About 10.45 more than's healthy I reckon...

Flanders and Swann, British entertainers of many years ago, did a song about DDBs - in particular the Big Red Painted, Diesel Engined 97 horsepower omnibus. Title was (I think) A transport of Delight, and appears on teh albums "At the drop of a hat", or "at the drop of another hat."

Just thought you should know!!!

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