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.
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.
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!
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. :)
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.
> 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.
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
>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?
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.
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.
> 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.
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.
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!
Here in France, a "pinte" of beer is 50cl. The other standard serving you can order is a "demi", which is 25cl.
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. :)
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
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
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?
> 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.
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
>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?
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.
> pretending you'd have to rename a Quarter Pounder as a "113-Grammer"
Ridiculous indeed. We should just breed smaller cows.
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.
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.
Nothing says “it’s the science discussion time” like bringing up McDonald’s, quarter pounder and associated analogies and unit conversions.