Sneering Imperialist
There's a bit of black humour to be found in the 7/7 London bombings, I have always felt, because if the bombers had chosen any other day in July the Americans might have gotten confused by British news reports.
With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.
I'd guess that we do MM/DD/YYYY because we usually write/say [Month] Nth and as such when omitting the year, usually write MM/DD and then just stick the year on at the end when necessary. Or maybe it's so that it usually goes from smallest number to largest number.
o-o
The States are weird.
ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ
Yep.
Maybe we'd switch to metric in common use more easily if they'd put both units on the signs and made metric the bigger numbers on the speedometers, then eventually (say, 3 years after) just drop the imperial units from the speed limit signs (why? because most Americans drive on a regular basis). You know, do it gradually. And just start calling 1 gallon jugs of milk 4 litre jugs of milk and whatnot.
edited 9th Jul '12 3:16:59 PM by Balmung
But that would be boring. We ignore the rest of the world for a reason, you know...
Hey, gorgeous
The previously mentioned country is "Liberia."
Just saying.
Memento Mori
I thought this thread was about the book series.
(they/them)
"I could care less" is an idiom. It means "I couldn't care less". Counterintuitive, yes, but idioms often make little sense when analyzed piece-by-piece. It's still perfectly understandable and clear to native speakers, so there's no problem.
If by "perfectly understandable" and "clear", you mean rage-inducing, sure. The basic problem, as you admitted, is that it means the exact opposite of the words used to say it.
Fast ways to get everything else you said ignored by a fair number of people: use Comic Sans, say/write "irregardless", say/write "I could care less" in any situation in which it is not abundantly clear that you could, in fact, care less.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Strange. My piano teacher's daughter wanted to get this Dear America video today.
My mom took her to Walmart. Long story.
Sneering Imperialist
Pig-headed obstinacy? 
In uffish thought
@"Could care less" thing:
I've been told that it's a short form of a longer phrase — "I could care less, but I'd have to try hard.". No idea if that's accurate, so I just say "couldn't care less".
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
'80s TV Action Hero
It's kind of like a rabbit hoping the fox will go away if it just doesn't look at it.
Why don't you just adopt it, guys. It's not hard. :P
Or y'know, be awkward like Britain. Half of things use metric, and the other half doesn't.
Petrol? Sold in LITRES!
Cars? Fuel economy measured in MILES PER GALLON.
Weather? It's 15 degrees C.
Wind? THE WIND IS TWO MILES PER HOUR.
One can buy fourteen feet of 45-millimtre railings.
...
At least you guys are consistent in your use of the oddperial system. :P
(You know, the scary thing is I've actually met people like this. Though, I'm sure they know we didn't fight the British in Vietnam.)
edited 10th Jul '12 11:31:56 AM by Malph
Oh My
...
-hides tea stores and the fact that I use metrics when cutting fabric-
FUCK YEAH AMERICA.
edited 10th Jul '12 11:33:39 AM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
"Why don't you just adopt it, guys. It's not hard. :P"
You can say this once you've convinced 312 million people to switch from something they've used all their lives to something else.
Oh My
Clearly there needs to be a religion that involves strict use of the metric system made. Then over the course of years we can convert.
It must be a form of Christianity. NOTHING ELSE IS LOVED IN AMERICA. All non-metric users will be labeled infidels and worthy of death.
edited 10th Jul '12 2:24:33 PM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
@Hopey: Most of us here only really use metric to express great weight or tiny distances, and only idiomatically at that ("This weighs a metric fuckton!" (because a metric ton (just call it a megagram, it sounds cooler) is heavier/more massive than an imperial short ton), "It missed by a damn millimetre" (because the millimetre is the smallest unit of distance that an awful lot of us have ever heard of). Oh, and large containers of pop (1 litre, 1.5 litre, and 2 litre bottles), which is odd because they could be consistent with the rest of the stuff in imperial units by being called 1 quart, 1.5 quarts, and a half-gallon with basically no change in the amount of contents or the size of the bottles.
The metric system is vastly superior for science and engineering, while the imperial system is vastly superior for everyday life. Can't we just accept that and continue using both?
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The everyday live bit depends on what you grew up with. I find metric to be absolutely natural for day-to-day use, but since I was taught it from day one...
@ Grizzly. No.
Also, I was taught to use both, and I can see that metric is the superior and more logical system.
MM/DD/YYYY is confusing. On the other hand, English is the only language I know that says things like July 7th; every other language I know (each of the two of them, really representative) does it the other way 'round.