I have not had a single alcoholic drink since New Year's Eve. Given the lockdown, I have little incentive to drink, and so have inadvertently done Dry January. I am halfway through February sober and with Lent fast approaching, may well not be seeing booze until Easter. (The key word here is may. This restrained life is going out the window as soon as we are allowed to socialise meaningfully again.)
Unlike the non-drinkers, I will not get on a high horse and preach about the virtues of sobriety. Find your nearest convert to the Church of Tee-Totalism and they will no doubt tell you that quitting booze makes you more energetic, sleep better and think more sharply.
Whether there's truth to that is a matter for science. However, I have noticed myself thinking more sharply about one thing in particular - getting my hands on a freshly poured pint of anything amber (except cider... or petrol).
But why is this an exception?
A pint no longer really serves any unique practical purpose. All liquid measures in the UK are metric with the exception of pints for draft beer and cider, and milk in returnable containers. Given the limited and specific conditions which pints are still permitted and used in Britain, it suggests that that retaining the pint is actually inefficient.
This inefficiency is exacerbated by the fact that at 568 ml, a pint (or any fractions or multiples thereof) won't neatly fit into any vessels not designed around it. This is hardly ever a problem because there's no shortage of pint glasses in the Britain. However trying to get 2 pints into a 1-litre jug leads to 136 ml of the sweet elixir of life going unpoured.
Another, more tangible example of the inefficiency of retaining the pint is when making comparisons between pub beers and corner shop tinnies. The latter variety is usually sold in metric quantities of 330 ml, 400 ml, 440 ml and 500 ml. Occasionally there are some which are sold as 568 ml, but that's rare. The impact of this is that it makes it more difficult for consumers to make quick value for money comparisons between a pint and a rounded metric measure. It is possible with a little effort. By no means is it rocket science. However it is enough additional effort to dissuade the majority of people from doing it.
One can also argue that the continued use of the pint has the implicit cost of wasting the metric education taught in British schools since 1974. Education is a benefit in kind and therefore is a cost to the taxpayer. The continued use of the pint can therefore be argued to be a waste of taxpayer's money.
Does any of this inefficiency actually matter? Does anyone lose sleep over getting 2 pints into a 1-litre jug? Does anyone do a value for money comparison for supermarket cans versus a pint in pub? Does anyone feel their secondary school maths lessons were a waste when ordering a pint?
The answer is no.
As inefficient as it may be, the pint is harmless. Of the imperial units which remain in regular use, the pint poses no material threat to the process of metrication. Moreover it has a certain charm that you just cannot replicate with any fraction of a litre. When pubs eventually reopen, I will be asking for a pint of the best and strongest!
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