The full quote in dirty imperial units:
I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I’m free.
– The Fast and the Furious
How was this translated to metric?
As a kid, I thought mile, inch, and ton were all fake units of measurement that didn’t have any actual distance attached. Just used metaphorically.
Then there’s cup, ounce, and pint, which I thought were just words for containers that have an approximate size. Yard and foot to a lesser extent. Acre must’ve been a plot of land of indeterminate size.
Getting into cooking, I’m hating that teaspoon and tablespoon are a thing (along with a pinch and a dash). They don’t even seem to line up at all with my tablespoons or teaspoons…I need to own special spoons that are labeled “tablespoon” and “teaspoon”, otherwise the measurements will be wrong!
And given the unit conversions of all this junk, I’m not convinced my former understanding is much worse than reality.
Wait until you learn about Hogsheads its a quarter of a tun which is different from a ton
Oh also agricultural measurements are local and item specific
Once upon a time we weren’t as concerned about accuracy as we are now. Woodworkers used to use surprisingly few graduated measuring tools; you’d make a thing called a storey stick which is a small board with notches in it. That notch is the overall height of the cabinet, that one is the overall width…who cares exactly what the number is, as long as it’s always the same distance? I don’t need a desk that’s 43 7/8" wide, I need a desk that fits between those two windows.
Same happens in the kitchen; until the 1950’s the average American housewife didn’t have much in the way of measuring tools, but you could rely on her to have some teacups and some spoons, so that’s what recipes were written for. A given woman would learn from experience that her spoons were a little small so use a slightly heaping spoonful when the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon.
In the modern day a set of measuring cups and spoons are such common kitchen equipment that finding yourself without them is either one of those sweet coming of age stories filed alongside calling mom to ask how you tell when canned soup is done.
Then the Europeans show up, smug in their complete inability to handle it.
I upvoted for the history.
I don’t understand why things haven’t progressed since the 50s though now that we have proper measurements… especially the ones that don’t need fractions! Haha
Well 1, there’s a lot of classic recipes out there written for cups and tablespoons so if you want to keep cooking those you’ll need traditional measuring tools anyway and
2, Recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon, you get the spoon that says 1/4 tsp on it and scoop once. It’s not ancient egyptian rocket surgery.
Also a unit of measurement.
LOL! I rest my case
Wait till you learn that when cooking ‘pinch’ is measured in how many fingers you use, ie: two-finger pinch, three-finger pinch, etc.
That actually makes more sense. But I still hate it.