APL\360

[Peter Corlett]

On Mon, Feb 01, 2021 at 08:15:25PM +0100, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
> On Mon, 1 Feb 2021 at 20:00, Fred Cisin via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> I had always been told, "A pint is a pound, the world around."

"The world" meaning "the USA", of course.

> Aha! Does that mean a pint of water weighs 1lb?

Yes, to within the massive margins of error involved in prehistoric units.

A fluid ounce of fluid weighs an ounce, oddly enough. This equivalence
applies to both British and American units. Although it seems obvious that
this is how it's defined, it turns out that it's actually derived from the
gallon, because rationality goes out of the window when it comes to this
trainwreck of a system.

There are 16floz to an American pint and 16oz to a pound, which lines up
nicely and gives that rhyme. A British pint is 20floz whereas the pound
remains 16oz, hence the alternative rhyme "a pint of water weighs a pound
and a quarter".

As a bonus, different reference fluids are used, so the floz also differs by
roughly 4% as it crosses the Pond.

The Dutch haven't quite let go of "ons", "pond" and "pijnt". The latter two
have been fudged to 500g and 500ml. I think "ons" might just be used in
stock phrases now. Some products ae also dual-labelled and include a floz
conversion; I did the maths because the number looked a bit off and it
turned out to be American floz.

> Interesting. I did not know.
>> I had already assumed that pub prices had inflated to higher than a pound.

The rhyme refers to weight, not currency...

The last pint of Real Ale I had before using my one-way Eurostar ticket the
hell out of the place was £4.20. Or four guineas if we're harking back to
the era of that rhyme.

> It was under £1 for ½litre of beer when I got here. In fact it was under
> US$1/ US 1pt. Now it's a bit more.

I did enjoy lining them up at €1.40/500ml in Bratislava, and in a tourist
trap at that. At some point I should spend more than six hours in Eastern
Europe, and a smaller proportion in a pub. Slovakia looked worth a visit
outside of the touristy bits, but my companion was being grumpy.

> Cheapest I had was CzK 17 for half a litre. At the time that was about 50¢.

It was €4.40 for a Happy Hour pijnt when I was last in one of my favourite
Amsterdam boozers, which was rather a long time ago now thanks to Rutte's
general incompetence at running the country. At today's exchange rate, the
€9.49 crate of beer from my local supermarket works out at €0.60/500ml.

>> Such worries call for having a few pints.
> It is one of the things I miss most in lockdown. And there's no
> electricity supply in my man-cave/basement so I can't even go down there
> and play with my old computers. :-(

Eh, at least the beer will be at cellar temperature.