XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: nospam@de-ster.demon.nl   
      
   Christian Weisgerber  wrote:   
      
   > On 2024-09-20, Helmut Richter  wrote:   
   >   
   > >> I'm sorry, I don't know where to post this.  I'm crossposting to   
   > >> alt.usage.english, because statute miles as a unit mostly afflict   
   > >> the English-speaking world.   
   > >   
   > > ... the English-speaking world with the exception of Ireland, Canada,   
   > > Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa and some others.   
   >   
   > I'm well aware, but they still suffer exposure by way of American   
   > media.   
   >   
   > The American-Canadian border in particular is very leaky in this   
   > regard.  Canada is notionally fully metric, but economically aligned   
   > with the US, and in practice you can find American units even in   
   > Canadian French.   
      
   The same applied originally.   
   Jefferson was a great fan of the metric system,   
   having discussed it a lot while in Paris,   
   but there was no way of pushing that through.   
   For all its proud independence the young republic   
   was still economically a colony,   
   depending for most of its manufactured stuff on England.   
   (so no way they could have their own units)   
      
   The only thing they got right from the start was their decimal currency,   
      
   Jan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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