5 ms·

> So for now, we're stuck with Quarter Pounders I think this is part of the reason why the US is so resistant to embrace metric - ridiculous things like preten

by smcl 2y ago

> So for now, we're stuck with Quarter Pounders I think this is part of the reason why the US is so resistant to embrace metric - ridiculous things like pretending you'd have to rename a Quarter Pounder as a "113-Grammer" mean that the mere notion of metric sounds farcical to your average punter and the conversation is over before it can even start. Meanwhile over in the UK they're quite comfortable using a hybrid of metric and imperial, and here on the European continent you can still buy a "Quarter Pounder" in McDonald's even though that system of measurement (not to mention the words "quarter" or "pound[er]") isn't used at all.

dudeinjapan 2y ago
> pretending you'd have to rename a Quarter Pounder as a "113-Grammer" Ridiculous indeed. We should just breed smaller cows.
- mixedump 2y ago
  Bigger ones, metric system increments are clear and can’t hide bs behind quarter pounder (marketing terms) etc. 113grams of meat is a baby size. 150g or 200g and we are starting to discuss things/meals seriously.
  - grues-dinner 2y ago
    I think the critical problem the metric system has is that "pound" just sounds like a good, solid, dependable amount of something. I wager a substantial number of the people who get actually angry about the thought of metric think a pound is more then half a kilo.
Daviey 2y ago
And the UK can still buy a "pint" of beer or milk, which is both technically (and legally) 568ml - but I only know that measure because I looked it up!
- thrance 2y ago
  Here in France, a "pinte" of beer is 50cl. The other standard serving you can order is a "demi", which is 25cl.
  - Daviey 2y ago
    If it requires me to start ordering a glass of warm flat beer using the metric measure of 568ml, i'd start doing that rather than reduce it by 68ml. :)
    - smcl 2y ago
      The warm/flat thing is a peculiar (often American) stereotype and it's a bit of a misnomer - I'm gonna try to dispel it a bit because it's quite an interesting topic. The beers you're talking about are served cool (though not ice cold as you're actually meant to taste something) and are generally quite good - they're made in smaller breweries often serving local communities and are usually served in pubs that tend to take pride in what they're serving[0] - cleaning the lines between each keg, monitoring temperatures in cellars, discarding kegs that are a bit off rather than serving them. "Flat" implies something was infused with carbon dioxide to become fizzy but then left out accidentally to go stale, whereas these are purposefully only as fizzy as the brewer intended. Sometimes there's a light carbonation, sometimes not. The beers you want to avoid are those that are mass-produced and what I'd describe as "lager adjacent" - Carling, Fosters, Stella, Kronenbourg and whatever US stuff makes it over. They're served everywhere and are, in my opinion, quite underwhelming if you're used to proper lager-type beer (idk what the preferred English nomenclature is, here it's ležák). I definitely prefer Czech beer but UK ales are something I do enjoy. [0] - let's not mention Wetherspoons
      - mckn1ght 2y ago
        > Czech beer I love a good pilsner. Give us the lowdown on that next!
        2y ago
ginko 2y ago
>and here on the European continent you still buy a "Quarter Pounder" in McDonald's even though that system of measurement (not to mention the words "quarter" or "pound[er]") isn't used at all. You order a Royale with cheese. Haven't you seen Pulp Fiction?
- smcl 2y ago
  Not everywhere - if you order a "Royale with cheese" in Norway and Netherlands for example you're going to get asked "Do you mean a Quarter Pounder?" My point is that it's more of a name/trademark than a measurement, so it doesn't necessarily make sense to convert or change it. To be honest if you measured a Quarter Pounder patty I suspect it'd end up being less than 113 grams anyway.
- pvaldes 2y ago
  Nah, In Europe you'll order a cachopo, that is like eight squirreoyals with cheese put on a line.
mixedump 2y ago
idk, but 10kg sledgehammer sound much better when named 22.046 pounds sledgehammer and 10 meters called 32.81 feet. And do those feet smell?
grues-dinner 2y ago
> Meanwhile over in the UK they're quite comfortable I dunno, the rags like the Daily Mail, Sun and especially the Express still sometimes have an article about something fairly unhinged to do with metric. Like a greengrocer refused to sell someone a pound of potatoes or something. And the right wing occasionally tried to stir some life out of their voters by saying they'll "bring back" the Imperial system. Meanwhile all I want for Christmas is my satnav app to show me speed limits in MPH like the signage and the speedo, but measure distance to the next junction in metres not thousands of feet. Yards would do.
- smcl 2y ago
  Heh well yeah the press finding things to be outraged at is nothing new. But in reality the population are quite comfortable describing their height in feet, their weight in stone and distances between towns in miles while also using recipes with ingredients in grams/millilitres or measuring things in cm/mm when doing DIY
- Apocryphon 2y ago
  I think some of the cousins on both sides of the Atlantic are similar in holding onto institutions in defiance of the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs I wonder if any other countries have bothered doing the same with their own systems. Also if there any in Canada, Australia, New Zealand who also want Imperial over metric.
Gualdrapo 2y ago
Here in Latin America, or at least here in Colombia, people call 500 grams "a pound" ("una libra") even though we never have used imperial officially
- rawgabbit 2y ago
  I think of weights in a similar manner, except I think of steak. An 8 ounce steak is about 250 grams. An 16 ounce steak (which is 1 pound) is about 500 grams. With regards to volume, I am used to 750mL bottles of wine. Converting distance is still unintuitive to me. The best method I came up with is that driving 60 miles per hour is about 100 km per hour.
- kees99 2y ago
  Same in the Netherlands. Metric pound, "pond" = 500 g. Rarely used, yet pretty much universally understood. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond_(massa) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond_(massa)
lieks 2y ago
In Brazil, which has never used imperial, the Quarter Pounder is called "Quarteirão", a literal translation would be "big quarter". Most people probably parse it as a "city block", though. Also, a regular burger here is 130-180g. A Quarter Pounder is smaller than I thought.
kcplate 2y ago
Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese? Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is. Jules: Then what do they call it? Vincent: They call it a Royale with cheese. Jules: A Royale with cheese. What do they call a Big Mac? Vincent: Well, a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it le Big-Mac. Jules: Le Big-Mac. Ha ha ha ha. What do they call a Whopper? Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bluefirebrand 2y ago
The quarter pounder is a funny example because even in America, they don't have a "half pounder", they have a "double quarter pounder" The idea that this would change is so bizarre
- smcl 2y ago
  Apparently A&W tried to introduce a “1/3rd Pounder” whose failure to gain popularity was attributed to people not realising 1/3 is bigger than 1/4. So I suspect that may have informed that decision
  - tpmoney 2y ago
    Despite this persistent story, Hardee’s seems to do just fine with their “third pound thick burgers”. I suspect digging into this story would uncover that A&W just didn’t make a good burger that people wanted
    - tzs 2y ago
      It turns out that market research conducted afterwards showed that it was indeed people not realizing 1/3 is bigger than 1/4 [1]. 1. https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractio...
      - tpmoney 2y ago
        The out of context quoting of the owner summarizing an unnamed market research firm hired by the company as published on the company’s website hardly seems the sort of unbiased, well researched and documented evidence one might want for “Americans are confused by fractions they’ve dealt with all their lives”. The same Americans who are ordering their lunch meats from the deli in 1/4 and 1/2 lb increments. The same Americans whose kitchens are full of measuring cups with 1/4 and 1/3 markings and sizes. The same Americans who measure their housing projects in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 inch fractions. Especially since at the time the burger in question was launched the company had declined from a high of 2400 franchises to just 500 in the span of 10 years. Maybe some individuals in the focus group were confused, that would not surprise me, since you can find a "lizard people" contingent in any group. But I rather suspect the real answer is just “failing company continued to struggle to find its market”, rather than a significant fraction of Americans who use fractions in their day to day lives forgot in this one specific instance how they work.
pioneer42 2y ago
I mean, people in the US are comfortable with buying a 2 liter of Coke, 9mm ammo, 250 mg ibuprofen, and then running a 5k before driving a few miles to buy a gallon of milk, setting the thermostat to 75°F, and lifting a few pounds before cracking open a 12 oz can.
- Apocryphon 2y ago
  E pluribus unum.
- smcl 2y ago
  The big one - what measurement do people use for drugs? When I was at university weed was fractions of something (“an eighth”, “a quarter” - I suspect not of pounds that would be a lot) but now it’s grams
  - mckn1ght 2y ago
    They’re fractions of ounces, and many people can convert between grams and [fractions of] ounces for this reason. But I doubt they’re the people that would oppose the metric system based on ideology.
    - smcl 2y ago
      Ah ounces of course, that somehow totally escaped me. Yeah I have no idea what caused the switch, it could be specific to certain parts of the country or even groups of people/dealers
tiltowait 2y ago
I assume Americans are resistant to the change because they perceive (rightly, for the most part) that it would require learning a new system for little practical benefit in their personal lives. Most people aren’t doing unit conversions all the time, and they’ve already internalized those they do need.

by smcl 2y ago

dudeinjapan 2y ago

> pretending you'd have to rename a Quarter Pounder as a "113-Grammer" Ridiculous indeed. We should just breed smaller cows.

mixedump 2y ago
Bigger ones, metric system increments are clear and can’t hide bs behind quarter pounder (marketing terms) etc. 113grams of meat is a baby size. 150g or 200g and we are starting to discuss things/meals seriously.
- grues-dinner 2y ago
  I think the critical problem the metric system has is that "pound" just sounds like a good, solid, dependable amount of something. I wager a substantial number of the people who get actually angry about the thought of metric think a pound is more then half a kilo.

Daviey 2y ago

And the UK can still buy a "pint" of beer or milk, which is both technically (and legally) 568ml - but I only know that measure because I looked it up!

thrance 2y ago
Here in France, a "pinte" of beer is 50cl. The other standard serving you can order is a "demi", which is 25cl.
- Daviey 2y ago
  If it requires me to start ordering a glass of warm flat beer using the metric measure of 568ml, i'd start doing that rather than reduce it by 68ml. :)
  - smcl 2y ago
    The warm/flat thing is a peculiar (often American) stereotype and it's a bit of a misnomer - I'm gonna try to dispel it a bit because it's quite an interesting topic. The beers you're talking about are served cool (though not ice cold as you're actually meant to taste something) and are generally quite good - they're made in smaller breweries often serving local communities and are usually served in pubs that tend to take pride in what they're serving[0] - cleaning the lines between each keg, monitoring temperatures in cellars, discarding kegs that are a bit off rather than serving them. "Flat" implies something was infused with carbon dioxide to become fizzy but then left out accidentally to go stale, whereas these are purposefully only as fizzy as the brewer intended. Sometimes there's a light carbonation, sometimes not. The beers you want to avoid are those that are mass-produced and what I'd describe as "lager adjacent" - Carling, Fosters, Stella, Kronenbourg and whatever US stuff makes it over. They're served everywhere and are, in my opinion, quite underwhelming if you're used to proper lager-type beer (idk what the preferred English nomenclature is, here it's ležák). I definitely prefer Czech beer but UK ales are something I do enjoy. [0] - let's not mention Wetherspoons
    - mckn1ght 2y ago
      > Czech beer I love a good pilsner. Give us the lowdown on that next!
      - 2y ago

ginko 2y ago

>and here on the European continent you still buy a "Quarter Pounder" in McDonald's even though that system of measurement (not to mention the words "quarter" or "pound[er]") isn't used at all. You order a Royale with cheese. Haven't you seen Pulp Fiction?

smcl 2y ago
Not everywhere - if you order a "Royale with cheese" in Norway and Netherlands for example you're going to get asked "Do you mean a Quarter Pounder?" My point is that it's more of a name/trademark than a measurement, so it doesn't necessarily make sense to convert or change it. To be honest if you measured a Quarter Pounder patty I suspect it'd end up being less than 113 grams anyway.
pvaldes 2y ago
Nah, In Europe you'll order a cachopo, that is like eight squirreoyals with cheese put on a line.

mixedump 2y ago

idk, but 10kg sledgehammer sound much better when named 22.046 pounds sledgehammer and 10 meters called 32.81 feet. And do those feet smell?

grues-dinner 2y ago

> Meanwhile over in the UK they're quite comfortable I dunno, the rags like the Daily Mail, Sun and especially the Express still sometimes have an article about something fairly unhinged to do with metric. Like a greengrocer refused to sell someone a pound of potatoes or something. And the right wing occasionally tried to stir some life out of their voters by saying they'll "bring back" the Imperial system. Meanwhile all I want for Christmas is my satnav app to show me speed limits in MPH like the signage and the speedo, but measure distance to the next junction in metres not thousands of feet. Yards would do.

smcl 2y ago
Heh well yeah the press finding things to be outraged at is nothing new. But in reality the population are quite comfortable describing their height in feet, their weight in stone and distances between towns in miles while also using recipes with ingredients in grams/millilitres or measuring things in cm/mm when doing DIY
Apocryphon 2y ago
I think some of the cousins on both sides of the Atlantic are similar in holding onto institutions in defiance of the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs I wonder if any other countries have bothered doing the same with their own systems. Also if there any in Canada, Australia, New Zealand who also want Imperial over metric.

Gualdrapo 2y ago

Here in Latin America, or at least here in Colombia, people call 500 grams "a pound" ("una libra") even though we never have used imperial officially

rawgabbit 2y ago
I think of weights in a similar manner, except I think of steak. An 8 ounce steak is about 250 grams. An 16 ounce steak (which is 1 pound) is about 500 grams. With regards to volume, I am used to 750mL bottles of wine. Converting distance is still unintuitive to me. The best method I came up with is that driving 60 miles per hour is about 100 km per hour.
kees99 2y ago
Same in the Netherlands. Metric pound, "pond" = 500 g. Rarely used, yet pretty much universally understood. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond_(massa) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond_(massa)

lieks 2y ago

In Brazil, which has never used imperial, the Quarter Pounder is called "Quarteirão", a literal translation would be "big quarter". Most people probably parse it as a "city block", though. Also, a regular burger here is 130-180g. A Quarter Pounder is smaller than I thought.

kcplate 2y ago

Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese? Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is. Jules: Then what do they call it? Vincent: They call it a Royale with cheese. Jules: A Royale with cheese. What do they call a Big Mac? Vincent: Well, a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it le Big-Mac. Jules: Le Big-Mac. Ha ha ha ha. What do they call a Whopper? Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

bluefirebrand 2y ago

The quarter pounder is a funny example because even in America, they don't have a "half pounder", they have a "double quarter pounder" The idea that this would change is so bizarre

smcl 2y ago
Apparently A&W tried to introduce a “1/3rd Pounder” whose failure to gain popularity was attributed to people not realising 1/3 is bigger than 1/4. So I suspect that may have informed that decision
- tpmoney 2y ago
  Despite this persistent story, Hardee’s seems to do just fine with their “third pound thick burgers”. I suspect digging into this story would uncover that A&W just didn’t make a good burger that people wanted
  - tzs 2y ago
    It turns out that market research conducted afterwards showed that it was indeed people not realizing 1/3 is bigger than 1/4 [1]. 1. https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractio...
    - tpmoney 2y ago
      The out of context quoting of the owner summarizing an unnamed market research firm hired by the company as published on the company’s website hardly seems the sort of unbiased, well researched and documented evidence one might want for “Americans are confused by fractions they’ve dealt with all their lives”. The same Americans who are ordering their lunch meats from the deli in 1/4 and 1/2 lb increments. The same Americans whose kitchens are full of measuring cups with 1/4 and 1/3 markings and sizes. The same Americans who measure their housing projects in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 inch fractions. Especially since at the time the burger in question was launched the company had declined from a high of 2400 franchises to just 500 in the span of 10 years. Maybe some individuals in the focus group were confused, that would not surprise me, since you can find a "lizard people" contingent in any group. But I rather suspect the real answer is just “failing company continued to struggle to find its market”, rather than a significant fraction of Americans who use fractions in their day to day lives forgot in this one specific instance how they work.

pioneer42 2y ago

I mean, people in the US are comfortable with buying a 2 liter of Coke, 9mm ammo, 250 mg ibuprofen, and then running a 5k before driving a few miles to buy a gallon of milk, setting the thermostat to 75°F, and lifting a few pounds before cracking open a 12 oz can.

Apocryphon 2y ago
E pluribus unum.
smcl 2y ago
The big one - what measurement do people use for drugs? When I was at university weed was fractions of something (“an eighth”, “a quarter” - I suspect not of pounds that would be a lot) but now it’s grams
- mckn1ght 2y ago
  They’re fractions of ounces, and many people can convert between grams and [fractions of] ounces for this reason. But I doubt they’re the people that would oppose the metric system based on ideology.
  - smcl 2y ago
    Ah ounces of course, that somehow totally escaped me. Yeah I have no idea what caused the switch, it could be specific to certain parts of the country or even groups of people/dealers

tiltowait 2y ago

I assume Americans are resistant to the change because they perceive (rightly, for the most part) that it would require learning a new system for little practical benefit in their personal lives. Most people aren’t doing unit conversions all the time, and they’ve already internalized those they do need.