As I approach my 79th year on this earth, I have decided that old men need to have expiration dates stamped on their body to warn the newer generations that we could be approaching a non-usable condition. Case in point - my weekend visit to the local pet store.

My 8 yr old great-granddaughter requested a re-stocking of the little pond in her mom's water garden that I built for her 20 years ago. I figured, "no problem" - a few inexpensive goldfish and clean water should make for an easy project, along with the necessary fish food and decorative gravel. The posted price of 25 cents each for the small goldfish reinforced the simplicity of my plan.

Now, fast forward to the checkout counter manned by a young lady of about 20 years of age. She rang up the gravel and the fish food, then asked how many goldfish I wanted. I replied that a half-dozen should be enough for now. She punched away at the keyboard, then gave me a puzzled look. "I am a little slow this morning - how many is a half-dozen"?

Now, I know I may be handicapped in the various languages of the younger generation, but when it comes to "ciphering", I have a Masters degree in mathematics and feel qualified to discuss numbers with all levels of expertise. Rather than embarrass the young lady, I just said, "I have changed my mind - I think I will cut that down to just 6 goldfish for now!" She happily rang up the six baby goldish and left this old man pondering!

How 'bout a Bakers Dozen?

There's no half dozen button on the quantity screen, unfortunately.

Computers have helped people to push buttons, not helped them think.

Dozen obsolete? Knot Furlong.

Lucky you didn’t ask for a gross.

I've gone the other way, I like to use terms like bushel, peck, rods, hectares in completely incorrect or nonsensical ways. "I'll be back in a half a bushel."

(since most people these days don't know any better)

I like to throw "You know the old saying." at the end of it.

I came across a new term a few months ago, from a friend that lived in Kentucky for a while. It's for distance...2 looks & a throw.

I can't FATHOM the lack of understand what half a dozen means.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
I can't FATHOM the lack of understand what half a dozen means.

Neither can I.

Perhaps she was a communist spy. Kind of like not knowing who won the World Series. Using the term "a dozen" this or that I feel is still in fairly common use in the American lexicon.

I don't believe it's obsolete. My 12 & 8yo kids at home understand the concept of dozen. I think a more plausible explanation is that the nice young lady at the counter is dumb.

You should have asked her if she knew how many eggs were in a dozen and, if so, half that many. Of course, 1/2 is a fraction, and that may have been beyond her comprehension.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
How 'bout a Bakers Dozen?

I use that all the time - drives my wife nuts when I too.

I used to work with a guy, when asked about the length of time a project would take, he would answer it with the units "furlongs per fortnight"...

Every damn time!

quote:

Originally posted by akcopnfbks:
I don't believe it's obsolete. My 12 & 8yo kids at home understand the concept of dozen. I think a more plausible explanation is that the nice young lady at the counter is dumb.

Or perhaps an immigrant from a place that uses the metric system.

flashguy

Ask her how many eggs are in a dozen?

Just be glad you didn't pay her with change including half dollars and dollar coins.

You'd still be there waiting for her to count that!

That's crazy. My nephew Roger has no problem with measuring by the dozen or half dozen. He does suffer from postaxial polydactyly though.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by akcopnfbks:
I don't believe it's obsolete. My 12 & 8yo kids at home understand the concept of dozen. I think a more plausible explanation is that the nice young lady at the counter is dumb.

Or perhaps an immigrant from a place that uses the metric system.

flashguy

I wonder how eggs are usually packaged in countries that use the metric system. The nice thing about a package of a dozen is that 12 is evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4, or 6.

Cables and leagues.


Poles, pecks, & tuns.

.

That story made my eyes cross, I had to re-read her question twice.