[conspire] VOTE

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Josef Grosch (jgrosch at gmail.com):

> I love archaic forms. I'm thinking of starting a campaign to get rid
> of these new fangled measurements like feet and gallons and go back to
> our traditional measures; cubits and hogsheads.

And speed limits in furlongs per fortnight!

While I'm at it, a brief discourse on roundabouts and human cussedness.  
I keep encountering people here in the Bay Area who claim they could not
possibly drive safely through a roundabout.  The unimaginative approach
would be to argue with them, describe what it's like, and attempt to
convince them that they're just being silly.  However, that fails to
mine this situation for its possibilities:  In one recent discussion, I
had a sudden realisation:  


'Hold on, there:  You drive routinely through the Evergreen Park
neighbourhood in Palo Alto, right?'

'Yes, and...?'  

'Well, so that means you drive along College Avenue off El Camino Real.
Right in the middle of College Ave., a block off El Camino Real, there's
a roundabout in the middle of the street.  There's literally no way to
drive along that street, without navigating a roundabout.  Because,
y'know, otherwise you'd be failing to drive _on_-street, and end up with
grass stuck up the tailpipe.'

'Is that what that is?  I always thought it was just a green island in
the middle of the intersection.'

'That's basically what a roundabout is -- with the automatic effect that
cars must swing around it; thus the name.'

An island in the middle of the intersection that you just unconsciously
do the right thing concerning, that you don't even think to give a name,
that's alright.  But talk about _roundabouts_, and suddenly _that's_
perceived as something exotic, that by default is threatening and
traumatic.  Because foreign and strange, ergo difficult.

I'm considering telling people that the UK has decided on reflection to
abolish all roundabouts, and instead put only perfectly ordinary,
safe green islands in the middle of selected intersections.