Edumacated

[elfs]

This afternoon Omaha and I and the girls did our weekly grocery shopping. I went up to the deli and said, "I'd like eight ounces of sliced roast beef, please."

The girl behind the counter looked at me with a puzzled expression for a moment and then said, "How much is that? I'm not very good with ounces."

Comments

[kenshardik]

Did you know there are sixteen oozes in a lib?

[ambrose-m.livejournal.com]

Marching Morons (C. M. Kornbluth)

I expect it happens to everyone who lives long enough...

A.M.

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Cross-post to mock_the_stupid?

[redhipple.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me. Pounds, pints, and cups were covered in elementary school but not ounces. I rememebr having to look that up on my own around age 11 because my measuring cup was marked in ounces.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dougs.livejournal.com]

This would be entirely believable in Europe, where eight ounces is 227g, and you might be asking for 200g or 250g. In Britain, we're at that strange crossover point where the legislation insists we label in metric, but everyone my age does both and everyone older talks in Imperial.

[fallenpegasus]

She must be new.

When I go to the deli and do something like "2 oz roast beef, please", quite often the clerk will grab a handful, then drop a few pieces back, hold it for a moment, and then dump it on the scale, and it will be within 10% of the requested amount.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Sadly it's not horribly surprising. I suspect I'm so good with measurements and conversions only because I do so much cooking and baking (and grew up learning how to convert European recipes as well as very old "handful of lard" type directions).