Not enough time to read all the comments, surely someone pointed this out already:
You need to come out of Bavaria once in a while and experience the diversity of German beer (and other drinkable liquids).
Granted, Frankonia has a lot of “Halbe” and “Maß” as well and is even co-opted by Bavaria, but other sizes are already available sometimes.
And at least elsewhere, you’ll get decent 0.3 Pilsetten or a Kölsch, an Alt (both 0.2, outdoor servings contrary to tradition often 0.4 nowadays)…
Still metric. Continental Europe knows the fill line. It is a fine line, in most meanings of the word.
To be fair, most Germans my age and above still think in Mark and Pfennig, some also in Ostmark, and a smaller portion even in Ostmark auf dem Schwarzmarkt.
Haven’t heard a Groschen mentioned in a while, and a Heller only exists in checking a bill auf Heller und Pfennig.
I’m definitely gathering that Bavaria serves gigantic beers for tourists! I definitely want to get out to the German countryside and have refreshing 0.3 or 0.2 glasses.
Just to be clear, I’m speaking of corny/silly/fun German restaurants in America, all of which I’ve been to serve beer in half-liter, one-liter, or two-liter glasses, which are often shaped like this, and the beer is served to chants of “DAS BOOT! TICKI TOCKI HOI HOI HOI!”
Urgh. Stiefel are terrible.
“Das Boot” however is a patently funny name for them.
(Just BTW, the Rhenanian version of the Stiefel is ein Meter, i.e. a meter-long tray with five 0.2 Kölschstangen. Also awful, especially since Kölsch ist served in small glasses also because it goes stale really quickly.)
…the metric system does not possess, or has not succeeded in establishing, a large number of units that can be visualized … In English you can describe someone as being five feet three inches high, or five feet nine inches, or six feet one inch, and your bearer will know fairly accurately what you mean. But I have never heard a Frenchman say, ‘He is a hundred and forty-two centimetres high’; it would not convey any visual image.
That was 1947, though, and in more recent times I have heard of people measuring themselves in cm. Maybe the ability to visualize is mostly a matter of what you’re used to.
Keep in mind that the French government that helped the American revolutionaries win their independence from UK, is the very same government that was overthrown in the French Revolution.
Yup. Native Brits tell me they can’t visualise kg and go on at me about pounds and stone. It tells me nothing.
You can tell me you weigh 5 stone 6 or 15 stone and beyond knowing that 15 stone is quite heavy (I sort of picture a smallish rugby player, possibly Neil Back), I’ve got no idea.
Although, I just googled it and turns out Neil Back played at around just under 15 stone so maybe Orwell was right and imperial measurements are just magically visualisable.
Still got no idea how heavy 5 stone is apart from about 1/3 of Neil Back.
Don’t get me started on the absurd notion that a normal sized person fills up a square 5’ on a side. Even after gunpowder spread people out, people in most fighting formations had people closer thant 3’ center to center.
Which rather brings up the fact that we DON’T really use imperial measurements in the US. Rather than using the imperial pint, we use two different pints. One based on Queen Anne’s Wine Gallon for liquid measure and another based on the Winchester Bushel for “dry measure” (really just fruit at this point)
You know, I was trained in the metric system, but had to use imperial units when I was doing work for US companies (graphic stuff) and I grew to like the inches and points. They tickle the brain in ways the metric system does not. I’d say there is room for both (outside the scientific domain). Like learning a second language - good for your brain and for your soul.
