Monday, November 10, 2008

sigh, only in america ?

So, I am reading the box of pasta as the noodles boil away...

"cooking instructions
1. Boil water (3 quarts per 3/4 lb of pasta)"

ok, I say to myself...just because I'm sure I know the answer, let's look at the box to find out a little about this particular product...

"NET WT 12 OZ (340g)"

Fine, I say to myself...I'm sure that I know how many OZ are in one LB and go out on a limb and say one box is 3/4 LB of pasta.
Does this strike anyone else as odd? I like things simple, I guess. '3' and '3/4' seem to me to be unusual numbers insofar as we don't use either one of them very often if we (read, I) can avoid it. "I'll take 3/4 of a dollar worth please...or...It's 3/4 after the hour." No.

OK OK. How about let's round it up a bit...and say, "4 quarts per pound of pasta"
four to one seems a much simpler ration than 3 to 3/4.

Or, in the alternative, how bout, you know, say "3 quarts of water per box"...?
I can handle 3 to 1 ...can you ?

Or, baring that, how bout...you know, let's say, "NET WT. 3/4 of one LB"?

I guess, by law, they included the "340g" in the weight but neglected to include directions for 34 % of one kilogram. 3 quarts...oh crap, lemme convert for y'all...US or Imperial?...I'll just say 3 Litres
SO,
1. Boil Water (3 L per 1/3 Kilo of pasta)

More 3s ! and now a 1/3...fabulous

/end ramble

4 comments:

Craig F said...

I bought a fish tank once, a small one for my dorm room or office, I can't remember which. And it said on the box, I shat you not, "Just add water"...and then in smaller type down below: "and fish." I assume "fish" was a noun and not a verb...

CrowLakeCliffJumper said...

I'm guessing, in context, 'fish' could be either noun or verb. However, if taken as a verb, you'll be at it a while

necrodancer said...

You're box of pasta, did you realize that the same box of pasta would have been a pound just a matter of a year or so ago. Seriously, did you notice a 25% drop in the price of that pasta? I don't think you did because it didn't happen.

OK. this is a trend, a very bad trend. Do you realize Ice-cream is now being marketed in 3 pint containers instead of the 1/2 gallon containers that were most prevalent just a year ago? The prices haven't changed but the quantity has. You pay the same but get less.

So, I just pointed out another three... 3 pints of Ice-cream.

Craig F said...

Story of our fishing lives, eh? Probably catch a rock bass in there, too.