@Nollie 😊 Papi Jo’s post was a gentle tease about the UK still being one of the very few countries still using the Imperial system of measurement. No harm intended and I’m sure none taken except by the most thin-skinned of us 😊
@B3 ... I do the same ... there are so many fascinating alleyways and byways out there. ❤️
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't see the joke in referring to a nation as retarded, whatever the context. To then make it worse by claiming not to mean the UK is simply making matters worse to me.
In a message to me he claimed only to be referring to the USA and Liberia, when the original post specifically referred to 3 countries.
I believe that English is not Papi Jo’s first language, and I understood the word retarded was used as per it’s dictionary definition of ‘delayed progress’ (eg ‘this material has been treated with a fire retardant’) ... rather than the unpleasant and pejorative colloquial and outdated usage implying that someone is of limited intellect.
As as I said, I believe that only the thinnest of skins would’ve been prickled 😊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Have to say I never miss a chance to tease the French about the metric system when they complain about imperial measurements (used in patchwork, for example) being complicated and illogical. I point out that imperial measurements relate to the human form - inch being related to thumb joint size, then feet, yards, chains, furlongs related to ploughing capacity plus pounds, stones etc.
I also tell them the metric system was introduced by Napoleon because even a numerically challenged Frenchman can divide by 10. Any country that still counts 70, 71, 72 as being 60 10, 60 11, 60 12 definitely has a handicap when it comes to mathematical calculation.
Generally speaking, they get my point and find it amusing.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Has anyone been to the Aga Khan garden in Kings Cross? I saw bits of it when I went to a teaching conference and it was impressive but a bit sterile. Are there any really good examples of this style in the UK?
Oh me too @B3 and maps - I can spend days lost in maps, especially old ones.
Oh ok, retarded in that sense, I did have a snort at retarded cement here, until I realised it meant slow to set. The Spanish still use pulgadas (inches, a pulgar being a thumb) particularly in reference to the size of their plumbing parts.
I often retard on the sofa for a siesta, book in hand, setting slowly into a state of torpor. Talking of which 💤
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Thanks @Dovefromabove and @Obelixx for your support in trying to explain my intentions in my post (now deleted by myself in response to @KT53 's reaction).
I only meant gentle teasing, but it was all my fault that I misused the word "retarded", not realizing that it was an insult. Dove is right that I intended to use the word as meaning "delayed progress". I should have known better.
As mentioned by @Obelixx the Imperial units were closer to everyday life (especially life in the country) and as such more "humane" than scientific. And I do appreciate that for a number of older people (can I say "older" without it being taken as an insult?) who have been brought up with the older system, it's only natural to measure their everyday world in inches, feet, etc.
On a lighter note, in the course of searching the Web for references to systems of measurements when I wrote my original post, I came across a most interesting page on the site of The University of Nottingham, which lists a number of older English units.
Did you know that at some time in the past 3 barleycorns
were worth 1 inch? I didn't!
PS.- Hope you found my explanations inch-perfect. Do watch out for that lovely mile-a-minute vine in your garden.
No problem @Papi Jo 😊 ... we don’t agree about everything, but I think I understand you well enough to know that you wouldn’t intentionally insult all of us over here on this increasingly isolated group of islands 😉
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Posts
@B3 ... I do the same ... there are so many fascinating alleyways and byways out there. ❤️
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
As as I said, I believe that only the thinnest of skins would’ve been prickled 😊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I also tell them the metric system was introduced by Napoleon because even a numerically challenged Frenchman can divide by 10. Any country that still counts 70, 71, 72 as being 60 10, 60 11, 60 12 definitely has a handicap when it comes to mathematical calculation.
Generally speaking, they get my point and find it amusing.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh ok, retarded in that sense, I did have a snort at retarded cement here, until I realised it meant slow to set. The Spanish still use pulgadas (inches, a pulgar being a thumb) particularly in reference to the size of their plumbing parts.
... we don’t agree about everything, but I think I understand you well enough to know that you wouldn’t intentionally insult all of us over here on this increasingly isolated group of islands 😉
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.