Guy Taylor - The Magna Carta Man of the UK

[Penny Wise]

I wonder if it could just be that he is now on the wagon

[Burnaby49]

You don't get that gaunt from cutting out the pints. He's emaciated. I'd say it's a medical issue.

[He Who Knows]

I agree Burnaby. He looks like he's turned into his own grandad overnight. Hope he's seen a doctor...

[rumpelstilzchen]

Can we be sure it is not a crisis actor?

[hucknallred]

I agree Burnaby. He looks like he's turned into his own grandad overnight. Hope he's seen a doctor...

Let's hope he has & hasn't taken notice of any of Ceylon's crackpot cures.

[longdog]

You don't get that gaunt from cutting out the pints. He's emaciated. I'd say it's a medical issue.

To be fair I went from 117kg down to 104kg (which is a loss of a bit over 2 stone in old money) earlier this year just from having the flu and not eating for a fortnight so it could be as simple as that.

[Gregg]

All my life, despite having actually lived in England for a time, I have been completely unable to figure out various English units of measure of things that they don't use anymore. A penny is 1/100 of a pound but what is a shilling, a farthing and some other old money you no longer use. How much is a stone in pounds not sterling? I'll think of others after I post this I'm sure.

When I was there, well, the internet was still in the AOL phase, google didn't exist and I was frankly too sheepish to ask anyone. The world wants to know. I mean, how am I to help rule the planet if I don't know a farthing about shillings and don't know how many pounds are a stone and do they go on sale?

[getoutofdebtfools]

I agree Burnaby. He looks like he's turned into his own grandad overnight. Hope he's seen a doctor...

Let's hope he has & hasn't taken notice of any of Ceylon's crackpot cures.

Let's hope he does

[longdog]

All my life, despite having actually lived in England for a time, I have been completely unable to figure out various English units of measure of things that they don't use anymore. A penny is 1/100 of a pound but what is a shilling, a farthing and some other old money you no longer use. How much is a stone in pounds not sterling? I'll think of others after I post this I'm sure.

When I was there, well, the internet was still in the AOL phase, google didn't exist and I was frankly too sheepish to ask anyone. The world wants to know. I mean, how am I to help rule the planet if I don't know a farthing about shillings and don't know how many pounds are a stone and do they go on sale?

A shilling is 1/20th of a pound so 12pence in old money or 5p in new money. We don't really use shillings any more except in casual speech such as "I'll bet you a shiny shilling" or "Ten fucking bob for a pint of fucking milk?"

A stone is to my mind solely a unit of weight for human beings. I know I'm about 17 stone but to convert that into any other unit except 'fat bastard' I'll have to go on to google. I have no idea how many pounds there are in a stone and can't be bothered trying to remember it. At 51 year of age even I'm too young to care about imperial units... Except pints of beer... Oh... And miles when I'm driving... And tobacco by the ounce.... OK... I'm inconsistent

[hucknallred]

No googling now... who on the planet except the UK & the Merkins still uses the mile as a unit of distance.

[NYGman]

No googling now... who on the planet except the UK & the Merkins still uses the mile as a unit of distance.

What gets me is that cars still travel in Miles in the UK, with speed limits in MPH, yet when you fill up your car, you put liters in to it. However, cars are still advertised with MPG numbers. That to me is the real mess. Use Miles to measure speed and distance on the road, but are metric in schools and other measurements, including fuel.

[rosy]

Fourteen pounds to a stone. Most (UK) people figure their weight in stones and pounds; other than that stones aren't really used as a measure of weight. Though I do recall my now deceased father-in-law talking of buying stones of potatoes in sacks.

A shilling was a 20th of a £, so equivalent to 5p. 12 old pennies to the shilling, and a farthing was a quarter of an old penny.

We have a strange hybrid system where foodstuffs must be sold in grams/kg except for milk in glass bottles - plastic bottles or tetrapacks are metric - and for draught beer/cider/lager sold by pubs, both of which can be sold by the pint. The whys and wherefores of what must be sold in metric units and what can be sold in imperial units would probably spill over into politics, so I'll say no more.

[arayder]

You don't get that gaunt from cutting out the pints. He's emaciated. I'd say it's a medical issue.

I agree Burnaby. He looks like he's turned into his own grandad overnight. Hope he's seen a doctor...

To be fair I went from 117kg down to 104kg (which is a loss of a bit over 2 stone in old money) earlier this year just from having the flu and not eating for a fortnight so it could be as simple as that.

Yeah I hope it's nothing to worry about. Many folks who diet off weight add an element of exercise into the mix such that when they trim down they have a bit of muscle mass. But Guy just looks puny and pale.

[longdog]

No googling now... who on the planet except the UK & the Merkins still uses the mile as a unit of distance.

I only use miles when I'm driving for all other purposes I use kilometres.

I have very vague memories of being taught pre-metric stuff at school before the age of seven (which I could be imagining to be fair because that was 1972) but it was metric from then on. Like most people my age and younger I use a hodgepodge of different types of units depending on what I'm doing or talking about at the time. My dimensions are completely imperial but I measure my dogs' size and weight entirely in metric. The only sphere in which I'm completely 'new money' is temperatures where it's strictly degrees C or K at a pinch. I neither know nor care how to convert Celsius into Fahrenwotsit and think the use of degrees F should be punishable by death.

[Gregg]

As regards figuring your milage in MPG, do you use real gallons (4 quarts) or Imperial Gallons (5 quarts, which is just wrong, a quart derives from a quarter or a fourth, and five of them to a whole never made sense to me)

[guilty]

As regards figuring your milage in MPG, do you use real gallons (4 quarts) or Imperial Gallons (5 quarts, which is just wrong, a quart derives from a quarter or a fourth, and five of them to a whole never made sense to me)

Real, proper, British Imperial gallons. God save the Queen! Thats 8 pints, 4 quarts, or a liquid weight of 10 pounds.
US measures are all messed up. It may well be that 5 US quarts = 1 Magna Carta gallon as prescribed in clause 61.

[grixit]

Returning to legitimate excuses for what would otherwise be violations:

A couple of years ago there was a case of someone arrested for explosives. The cops tried to search his house but gave up because it turned out to be stuffed full of homemade pipe bombs. Instead they told his neighbors to evacuate and blew up the house. There was no recourse in court or insurance claim for the owner.

[The Observer]

Instead they told his neighbors to evacuate and blew up the house.

I think it is a bit late for suggestions on how to resolve the Fern Chase situation.

[Arthur Rubin]

A couple of years ago there was a case of someone arrested for explosives. The cops tried to search his house but gave up because it turned out to be stuffed full of homemade pipe bombs.

I was thinking of Ed Brown (or Ed: Brown;), but that's not right. His house was seized by the IRS around 2007, but only shown to prospective buyers in 2015 because of the booby-traps (not Jessica Rabbit's)....

His thread is over in US tax protesters, I believe. I'm on my smartphone, and cannot easily point to the thread.

[ArthurWankspittle]

I was thinking of Ed Brown (or Ed: Brown;), but that's not right. His house was seized by the IRS around 2007, but only shown to prospective buyers in 2015 because of the booby-traps (not Jessica Rabbit's)....

His thread is over in US tax protesters, I believe. I'm on my smartphone, and cannot easily point to the thread.

Yes, Ed Brown's house auction had the riskiest "caveat emptor" ever - it was sold on the basis that not all the booby traps may have been found.