Nearly three feet

[Moe DeLoughan]

I think you're the reason the Foot Long Hot Dog stands at the fair now have "About a" in parentheses before their name.

[Tony Cooper]

We may be so blessed, but I'm not aware of it as a problem in Central Florida. Of course, if it's like the air potato vine, I may wake up tomorrow and find my house engulfed.

I wonder about a kudzu plant and an air potato plant fighting over the same tree. Which would win, and would the winner strangle the loser?

[Jenn]

LOL That's funny!

[Lewis]

"In a year's time" means that over the course of a year (any year) he picks up hundreds of them from the yard.

[Lewis]

Did you change shoe-size scales around the age of 30?

[Steve Hayes]

Yes, we went metric.

But those sizes had three digits, and they soon went back to single digit sizes, but the old ones were too small.

[Swifty]

I agree with the "deceptive". I can see their logic; they are using "feet" as an integer quantity. So "one foot" is nowhere near three feet, but "two feet" is nearly three.

I use a related deception by saying that my age is nearer to 60 than it is to 50. I could equally say that I'm nearer 50 than 40, but that deception is more obvious upon inspection (of my face).

[R H Draney]

Daniel Prince filted:

How many feet does the grabber extend your reach?..."more than two" is enough for them to call it "nearly three"....r

[R H Draney]

Tony Cooper filted:

I wouldn't advise doing the experiment...they may decide to join forces....

Arizona's version of kudzu is apparently the quagga mussel....r

[annily]

That's obviously what he means, but it's not idiomatic for me. I would say what you did for that meaning, not "in a year's time", which suggests to me a year in the future, as it does for Steve.

[Steve Hayes]

Is this yet another pondian difference?

[Peter Moylan]

Translation into my language: "over the course of a year".

[Peter Moylan]

Subway sells foot-long sandwiches that are about ten inches long.

[Adam Funk]

Do you get many of those in your garden?

[Leslie Danks]

Rising damp can be a real problem.

[Adam Funk]

Nonsense, Miss Jones!

[Jenn]

Using the words "nearly three" *sounds* more positive than using another word like say "almost three".

[Lewis]

I'm not sure. "In a year's time" sounds a little folksy to me, and that often turns out to mean "AmE South". I would probably say "Over the course of a year" but I didn't think Tony's phrasing was unusual.

[Steve Hayes]

Or for me, simply "in a year".

[Oliver Cromm]

• Jenn:

When my son is still up at 10:15, my wife reminds him that it's 11 and he should be in bed. I understand that she uses hyperbole, but I am still wondering how she expected him to learn the clock this way.

But it is in fact only "almost nearly three feet" (it would be nearly three feet if it was just a little longer).