Bob Collins
At one time, the United States was heading toward the metric system. A few mileage markers were changed. Somewhere in Massachusetts, there’s still a sign to tell drivers that Portsmouth, New Hampshire is 35 km away. And decades later, most New Englanders still don’t know how far away Portsmouth really.
Not long after Coke introduced the 2-liter bottle, cooler heads prevailed and eighths, sixteenths, miles, and gallons were saved from extinction.
This trip down memory lane is brought to you by northfield.org, which has a short piece today on the “metric football game” between Carleton and St. Olaf in 1977.
Posting here will be intermittent this week. I’m filling in for Jon Gordon on American Public Media’s Future Tense this week, which requires me to think deep technical thoughts.
