Place Holder

[james_davis_nicoll]

I was going to put a rant here but I think it would be prudent for me to wait a month until the book that triggered it sees print. Even if I friends-lock it, that doesn't mean the publisher might not get wind of my comments and take offense.

So, to fill the time until then:

Is writing Heinlein young adult novel pastiches primarily a male occupation? I can't off-hand think of a female writer who tried her hand at a Heinlein young adult novel, at least not in the centenary wave of Heinlein pastiches.

[This might be a stupid question but if it is mainly a guy subgenre, why would that be?]

In a unrelated comment, metric _or_ American imitation of Imperial, people. Not both or at least not both in the same sentence.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

On your unrelated comment -- maybe the "American imitation" covers it; but last I looked, highway distances and speed-limits were marked in Imperial in England (and the units involved are the same as the American imitation). So right now, and for at least some time into the future, one could construct a situation where using both systems in a sentence made perfect sense -- particularly sentences involving "miles per liter".

And I find myself using both when writing in LJ and email lists sometimes, knowing people of both flavors will be reading; and a character in a book might possibly get away with that as well (though of course Twain's Dictum applies).

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Going off-topic, it can be quite dangerous to change speed/distance signage on roads from one unit to another. For example, when switching from mph to km/h for speeds, you'd go from a 60mph limit to a 100km/h limit. Which could have drastic side effects if not everyone got the message. Which is why the UK still specifies imperial units on road signage. (Although we might eventually follow the Irish technique for changing -- which is to switch distances to metric first -- it's less hazardous -- and let people get used to it, before a huge publicity campaign in the run-up to changing speed limits to metric too.)

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

We managed in Canada, back in the 1970s.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Canada successfully went through that process years ago. For several years, the speed limit signs had both metric and imperial. Eventually, they phased out the Imperial and signs now only have metric speed limits.

[velochicdunord.livejournal.com]

However, all border signs have biiiiiiiiiiiiigggg notices that the 100 posted is _kph_, not mph.

While we have shifted internally, the southern neighbours need to be reminded as they cross.

The very large sign on the Canadian side of the Sault St Marie crossing to the upper Michigan peninsula comes to mind.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

When we swapped in New Zealand in the '70s, road signs had both numbers on them for a long time. Then gradually the mph numbers were taken away.

Sudden switching is a disaster, but switching can be done, with time and care.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

What European nation was it that successfully managed to switch which side of the road people drove on?

[pompe.livejournal.com]

We (Sweden) did. 1967. It worked pretty well.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Blowed if I can remember, but you're correct -- there was one.

[shimgray.livejournal.com]

Sweden, but if memory serves it basically involved shutting down the road net and then gradually reopening it again over a few days.

Expensive, but it worked.

[pompe.livejournal.com]

Nah, it was just slightly over a day and it was on the weekend. The actual national ban on private traffic was just five hours (0100 to 0600), and for ten minutes arund 0500 the nation stopped entirely. There are famous pictures in many Swedish books of how the cars cross one of the main streets in the capital in early morning.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

If we tried that in modern Canada, I would expect a bloodbath. Although I note Newfoundland managed the switch after joining Canada.

That gives me an idea for an amusing post to soc.history.what-if, come to think of it.

Something That I Did Not Know When I Woke Up

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

1923 was known as the Year of Free Beef in Nova Scotia because that was the year they switched which side of the road they drove on and it was cheaper to slaughter and replace hauling oxen than it was to retrain them.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Well, there's the joke about how the Irish were going to do it:

On Monday 1 April, private cars, taxis and buses will make the change, followed by vans, lorries and bulk transports on Tuesday 2 April....>

(Needless to say, no such change has been made!)

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

Preceeding this, new vehicle speedos had to have both mph and km/h for some years. So come changeover, the vast majority of vehicles had the right calibrations available.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

And for those that didn't, stickers were available with numbers in km/h, along with instructions for where on the speedo they should go.

My dad had a big American car, and I remember him putting the stickers on after he was told by a traffic officer that it wasn't acceptable to have a car without them.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of the educational film they showed us in the late 70s. A driver, obviously used to mph, sees a speed limit 90 kph sign, yells "NINETY!" with an avid gleam in his eye, and guns it. He promptly gets ticketed.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, changing would have to be approached with care, and would cost considerable money (things like changing the signs *twice*, once to mixed and then later to pure metric, maybe, as other nations have used). I certainly don't feel any urgency for the UK to convert to metric speed limits or distances; or even for the USA to. And I didn't mean it as a poke (this time; I *have* used it as a poke when some UKian was being particularly holier-than-thou about our non-use of metric, but I haven't felt that way about comments here).

It was just a convenient example where at least *today* you can very easily justify using both systems in the same sentence.

[casaubon.livejournal.com]

We still use miles per gallon for mileage, though petrol is sold in litres.

A likely example of mixing systems would be when discussing tax rises after a budget - "2 pence on a pint of beer and a penny on a litre of unleaded..."

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, so my example isn't quite right (though I guess to do the calculation, they'd have to convert litres to gallons along the way, and that could then appear in the sentence).

I like the tax rise example better anyway.