Nearly three feet

[Oliver Cromm]

• Peter Moylan:

Metric feet?

I believe in this country the size is labelled "12 inch".

[krw]

Which, on this side of the pond, would be on 11/06/2014. "Over the course of a year", means that between now and 11/06/2014...

[Jenn]

true! So, why do we still talk that way?

[Steve Hayes]

Depending on which side of which pond you happen to be on.

[Mark Brader]

(alt.home.repair dropped)

Peter Moylan:

Oliver Cromm:

I don't think so. In 2012 a Subway was one of the places I was going for lunch semi-regularly, and I remember the name "foot-long" because it contrasted with the simple "large" at Tim Hortons. Of course, it might have changed since then. I never measured them, but the Subway ones did look about a foot long to my eyes; the ones at Tim Hortons (since discontinued) were shorter but thicker.

I looked at

but while they are most eager to show you nutritional and other details for the "standard 6-inch" size, I found no reference to the larger size at all. However, a Google search

allintext: 12-inch OR foot-long OR footlong site:subway.ca

turned up a number of results, the first page of which all had "footlong" or "foot-long" in the given excerpts.

[Mark Brader]

Mark Brader:

Well, apparently I mean I *meant* to drop it. Sorry. Followups directed to alt.usage.english this time, at least.

[Adam Funk]

A metric foot would be 30 cm, wouldn't it?

[charles]

It is certainly what timber merchants use." transition" - possibly, but it's been with us for rather too long for that.

[Leslie Danks]

A ligneous equivalent of the grocer's thumb.

[krw]

Um, which is why I prefaced it with "on this side of the pond...".

[Oliver Cromm]

• charles:

The pound was first defined to be 500 g in Germany in the 1850s. A good hundred years later, it ceased to be an allowed measure in trade. It is now slowly vanishing from everyday language. So, maybe 100-200 years is realistic for this kind of transition.

[anmcc]

Big difference there; you had before unification a good many measures, roughly but not exactly equal, with the same name. Standardizing

-them- was the first step.

ANMcC

[Steve Hayes]

Or 290mm.

When South Africa went metric in 1971 the price of building rose, because metric bricks were smaller and took longer to lay. Then a brickmaker introduced the M290 brick, whose longest dimension was 290mm, which made it bigger than the old Imperial bricks.

[Steve Hayes]

For which values of "this"?

[Tony Cooper]

Your location is not known to us by your posts.

[Daniel Prince]

Are the blue ones of poorer quality than the original Gopher(tm) brand red ones?

Could you please tell me which one you use, where you got it and how it is better?

[Tony Cooper]

Dunno. I've only seen the blue one at Harbor Freight.

It has an aluminum shaft, better grip, and much better grasping jaws. I don't remember where I purchased it, though. I think it was about $15.

[krw]

Steve's is.

[Adam Funk]

The standard British brick now is 215 × 102.5 × 65 mm; if you use the standard 10 mm joints, the length is twice the width or 3× the height. (I think the joints were smaller with the Imperial size.)

[krw]