Post something that made you HAPPY today.

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Isabella,

I remember when I was in college and I called home. My cat Samantha used to meow in the phone. I couldn't wait to get home and see her.

That's cute!

My dog fell asleep with his chin on the base-station part of my landline. He was pushing that button that helps you locate lost handsets. So I was upstairs and the handset was ringing. I tried to answer it but there was no one there. When I went downstairs to investigate he was grinning at me with his chin still on the base. I think he knew that he'd learned how to make the phone ring, or make me come downstairs. He looked really proud of himself.

That is something my cat Peter would have done, too. He was so smart and could figure things out so well.

A good bike ride in near ninety-degree heat.

I didn’t know you thought in Fahrenheit, Prometheus.

Don't get me started on the metric system

The US, and Belize, are the only countries still under the Imperial system.

Not wholly true. For instance, in the UK, our road signs, as you will know, give speed limits in MPH.

Anyway, in defence of my position, I'll offer you two words: Peter Hitchens...

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk ... alots.html

I think we're officially on the metric system in this country, and have been for a good number of years. The Establishment, government bodies and the 'enlightened' media such as the BBC and The Guardian etc, all make a point of using metric measures, but the ordinary folk just won't wear it in large part.

Ask just about any Briton how far away they live, and the answer will nearly always be in miles, ask them their weight, and it will be in stones and their height will be given in feet and inches. This even seems to be true of the younger (and now not so younger) generations who were educated in a system which uses exclusively metric units.

^^Do you think in Fahrenheit, too?

I'm not American and I think in Fahrenheit too.

For the most part, yes. If it's a hot day, it's 'in the seventies (or eighties)' not in the 'high twenties' or whatever. There are some areas where I've come to use Celsius though, simply because it's the convention (from the world of science) - hence in a thread on central processor temperatures on a computer forum I belong to, it's normal for everyone to discuss the topic in Celsius - even the American and British members do so. To insist on using Fahrenheit in these circumstances would appear just plain bizarre.

I realise I use Fahrenheit for high temperatures because it sounds more descriptive to say "It was 90 degrees!" or "I have a fever of 101!", but I don't have a sense of lower temperatures in Fahrenheit. For example, I wouldn't be able to imagine a 50F day vs. a 60 F day, but I could picture 10C versus 15C. Likewise, distance is usually in miles. Linear is both (feet and inches as well as metres and centimetres, depending which seems more descriptive or accurate). Volume is in metric (litres) other than pints!

Litres are one measure which have established themselves in this country because of the practice of pricing petrol in litres, from about the early 1990s (I think it helped psychologically, because the price appeared cheaper when based on litres). But seriously, I've never ever heard anyone in the course of an ordinary conversation in this country say "I weigh xxx Kilograms' or 'I'm xxx centimetres tall'. Maybe I should get out more...

No, but if something is really about a centimetre in length, I'd say "That insect was a centimetre long", rather than "It was about half an inch"...

How would the insect describe its length?