Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Measuring goodness

Seven sisters inspire sailors,
Who have seven seas to drown in.
Seven dead flies set forth a tailor
And there's seven sins for frowning.
If we count counting as boon,
Does that make eight virtues or noon?

METRIC, n. A quantitative approach to quality, 40% less misleading, on average, than a statistic.

11 comments:

Omnipotent Poobah said...

metric - The virtually impossible to collect used to describe the virtually impossible to describe.

the amoeba said...

Sheesh. No wonder Americans are so wary of the metric system ...

Jim said...

Boon, noon. Right away I thought of moon, lune, loon. ???
..

Unknown said...

Spoon?

I have always loved the mental image of the "metric ton." sleek, European, and huge.

Ariel the Thief said...

Wish my English was good enough to appreciate your metric. I bet the sisters find it funnier than all those stinky sailors with bad excuses.

Logophile said...

Clever dog.

k. riggs gardner said...

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No comment. I plead the Fifth Amendment on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.
~~~~~~

cooper said...

metric,

Gives a smart and honorable appearance to the deliberately misleading.

quilly said...

Having metric, the John escorted her to a hotel room and then ... a growling dawg told me not to finish this story.

Doug The Una said...

Good description, Poobah.

Amoeba, I once had a populist case I made for the metric system, arguing that finance happened base 10 while tool sizes, lumber and so forth were denominated in binary. Information technology made that an elitist argument. Oh well.

Jim, you're like an in-house rhyming dictionary.

Spoon works, Mary. Welcome back.

Ariel, the sisters, I think, would not like my metric.

Bow-wough,

Cooper, and what could be handier than that?

Smart dog, Quilly, but isn't ric a man's name?

the amoeba said...

isn't ric a man's name?

Surely, Dawg, you've heard of Steely Dan?