Upsy-daisy

Milk in pints or litres? Potatoes in pounds or kilos? Distances in miles or kilometers? It's a generation thing - I find it difficult to visualise a centimeter, say, whereas I have no difficulty in visualising an inch. For my children and grandchildren it's the other way round - indeed my grandchildren would probably say "what's an inch?". As my generation die out, metrication will take over - it's inevitable. The one thing that does get my goat is temperature. I still find it rather easier to think in Fahrenheit terms, but have learned to cope with Centigrade. What annoys me is the relatively recent insistence on calling it Celsius. There's no question Fahrenheit invented the scale which now bears his name, but Celsius did not. It's true he invented a scale based on there being 100 degrees between freezing point and boiling point, but his scale was the other way round - boiling point was 0 degrees and freezing point 100. So to me the common scale now in use is and always will be Centigrade. If you want Celsius, you can have it - just deduct the Centigrade figure from 100, but don't expect it to make any sense.