America is subtly converting to metric (hurry up).
Hiya, dear readers!
My time here in prison has exposed me to a subtle plot to convert people to using the metric system, and it's happening right here!
Metric? In My America?
A couple of decades ago, when you ran down to the corner store for an ice cold soda from the cooler, you were going to find two common sizes: 20 fluid ounces, and one liter (33.8 fl. oz.).
You might see some two liter (67.6 fl. oz.) bottles on other shelves outside the cooler, but 20s were the go-to unless you were super thirsty (or economical enough to see the liter bottle offered a heck of a lot more for an extra 25¢).
In this last decade, however, a new size has shown up on American shelves: the 16.9 fluid ounce bottle. That's a peculiar size, isn't it?
No, not really! Look next to that number: 500 ml! One half of a liter!
So, keep this in mind.
Shrinkflate into Metric Conversion
I was looking at a packet of fish I received for dinner, noting that it weighs 3.53 ounces.
The mathematicians of the group might have already done the maths to turn that number into a metric measurement.
... of 100 grams.
1/10th of a kilogram.
In the past, this would have been a four ounce packet, or 113.31 grams, with the content measurement favoring the American version of the imperial measurement system.
People joke that America will do darn near anything to avoid measuring in Metric, and I am inclined to agree -- our visit park here at Blessington has COVID-era signs up that tell you to stay "6 pies" apart.1,2
But I have good news.
Metric is coming. Its motion is inexorable, and easily measurable.
As much as we fight it, it crawls over our 355 ml soda cans, up the side of our 100 g packets of fish, even over our 90 g packs of bagel chips, meanders through our sodium intake 378 mg at a time...
Your hospitals use it to check your height, weight, and temperature...
Headphone jacks aren't referred to by fragments of inches, but instead, by the millimeter...
The creep is there.
I'm looking forward to a future without the foot-inch, the pound, the gallon.
1: In honesty, the sign is written in Spanish, and tells you to stay 6 feet apart. It depicts an arrow between two individuals, and has "6 pies" written over the arrow. No, it does not show six pies, however...
2: Businesses in my home state of Oregon, USA, had signs that informed people to stay two beavers apart during COVID, including a picture of two beavers. Each beaver is about a meter long.