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

Why not? In the middle of a discussion of badgers and stovepipe hats.

I take a seven and three-quarters.

I had an odd discussion one time - or more accurately, I was subject to a harangue - on the subject of whether or not Abraham Lincoln was Amish. The evidence seemed to be that he had a beard without a moustache, and never drove a motor car.

"I take a seven and three-quarters" [Dmitri]

That's one short stove pipe

so* so* so* wants to twist the statement ;
"I take a seven and three-quarters"
*decides against it

You 2legs, now what am I supposed to make of



"I take a seven and three-quarters" [Dmitri]

That's one short stove pipe

I can't help it... Personally I'd like at least a 12" ... (stovepipe hats, obviously* what did you think I meant? )

{In the middle of a discussion of badgers and stovepipe hats.

I take a seven and three-quarters.}


I assumed that Dmitri was referring to his badger size.

Until I looked it up. 'Badgercise' is a proprietary fitness craze currently sweeping the nation.

Only on noohootoo is it appropriate to mention this in a thread about Abraham Lincoln's b-day:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgerphone

I had that as my mobile phone ring tone ages ago!
OK.... so... have we completely derailed this thread now, or can anyone still remember what it was actually about?

Whose law was it that said that given enough time, any online conversation would inevitably turn to the subject of badgers?

NO idea... but it has to be someone who was at the Bognor (badger) regis badger-inferno weekend meet... about a decade ago... I still get the nightmares

badger overload (and I was just trying to find out what kind of animal the badger actually is ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlYM2UfiR4k

aww honey

got to 'em

I deny any acquaintance with badgers, as I do not believe they live on this side of the Atlantic. ,whistle> Now, ground hogs...

A seven and three quarters is a HAT size, people. Just because you all caved and went metric...traitors...

Hat sizes...I don't think we metrificated them, but I'm not sure...to my eternal shame I don't even know my own hat size.

We're a total screw-up here, in the UK (well at least IN England can't speak first hand for otter parts of the UK), its such a strange mixture of metric and imperial

I can't get my head round peoples weight, or height, unless its in Imperial (and stoens plus Lb for weight, not the US tendanacy to just give Lb for wegiht)
Green grocers, veg, coffee beans, butchers all in metric, but really, you can still get it in Lb and oz if you want, though I get* metric for food measurements now
Any DIY stuff I do, I do in metric, Milimeters...
Clothes sizing is still all in inchs really but, strangely enough, I think pretty much all hats I've seen being sold, (albeit mainly online), are in metric, CM, (though often have the imperial listed somewhere on the information for the hat)
And of course, shoe size, we're still the UK not European sizing, though I guess all shoes carry both sizes nowdays

Mind... even wehn I think I think in metric, half the time I'm not; oo a 250G bag of coffee beans, or a 250 G block of cheddar... without thinking I'm thinking it, my brain kinda converts that to 'about half a pound'

If only, of course, I could trick my brain into acknowleding the 1 KG bag of coffee beans, is four* half pound bags, then I might actually make it last longer than a week

I think my bowler is 60 or 61 CM, and padded out, of course, inside, to create a snug fit, using pages taken out of a copy of The Times... as is proper (well its what University porters at Cambridge always use to do so)

Now... I must* start construction of my stupendious magnificent, insane leather hat, I'm going to make... using every single bit of leather from a very* old and now way way way too big leather jacket I have cluttering up the cupboard just need a couple hundred various silver studs, and buckles, and D-rings and o-rings and stud-fastenings and zips, to construct it It'll be so* insane... Hmmm....

oops. sorry.

I think we were meant to be talking about... err... badgers?

Clothing, shoes, hats and so on come in all kinds of different national units of measurement here in DK and apparently all of them have to be printed on labels made of some kind of fabric and sewn to these garments, so sometimes these labels cover more than for instance the bikinis they are sewn onto

Everything else is metric, but you can still hear elderly folks refer to 500 grams as one pound

Exactly... Imperial worked*, metric could* work... we just seem to have ended up with a muddled mix of the two

Also, the confusion can have delaterious affects; a few years ago, I'd buy fresh filled pasta from the supermarket; 250 G packs; basically* half a pound.... enough for one person and one meal (if not having much welse with it), or two people, as part* of a meal (with other stuff).

Then the packs went to 300G..... a bit* too much for one person one meal....

Now, they're 400 G, which kinda makes more sense; I split the packs when I get them, in half, and so end up 200G pasta per portion but... for a while I'd not noticed the gradual increase in size/weight, and so was taking in far* more calories than I should have... luckily I did notice, and it was during a period I was cutting portion size anyhow; basically down to half or less what I'd have had as a portion of food, several years ago

I know why they've done it... increased the pack sizes.... its the government.... trying to make everyone fat.... fog their brains, make them placid.... coorperative..... unable to 'fight back against the system'.... Luckily I've got my tin foil hat...

I am gradually getting more used to working solely in Grams, though, for food and things... but... lothing measurements are defiantely still inchs err, asides hats, of course

Talking about clothing, Abraham Lincoln had old-fashioned shoes.

That is, both shoes were the same. He didn't have a left shoe and a right shoe. That idea was just catching on back then.

I'm totes with Abe on that! Different shoes for right and left is way too confusing for my mind in the morning