Monday, May 20, 2019

They go to great lengths

Okay, I call bullshit. Casey, Illinois, claims to have the world’s longest yardstick. It’s big alright, 36 feet long. But, to me, by definition, that’s no yardstick. Friends, “yardstick” is not one of those words where you have to look it up and learn its etymology to determine its meaning. In order to make any object qualify as a yardstick, you must first ensure that one of its dimensions is a yard. That’s just obvious. Then you can go ahead and make the world’s thickest yardstick, or the world’s widest yardstick. But there is exactly one possible length for yardsticks.

3 comments:

M.A. said...

Isn't 36 ft long a yard squared? I can see how that qualifies.

Anonymous said...

To M.A. OMG! There's a difference between lengths and areas (not least the units used).

Dave Maleckar said...

Probably right there, Anon. I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure that the term "squared" means "multiplied by 12" only under very limited conditions which are not met here.