A Briton appreciates America

Defending America against European bashers, Bryan Appleyard's stand-in registers the fact that no one can gainsay that Americans on the whole are really good at estimating object weights.

An English manufacturer comments,

One of the (many) downsides of a lifetime in manufacturing is the some would say disturbing tendency to assess the world in terms of its dimension, mass and material content. Confronted by Goethe my reaction would be 'five foot four, maybe four and a half, eleven stone two', not 'blimey, must ask him if Young Werther was really about himself'.