I've spent the last few

I've spent the last few days housing and hanging out with Neale, and like the time I spent with him last summer in Sydney, we spent a fair amount of time constantly comparing Australian things, places, sayings, and mannerisms with the American counterparts. I found myself constantly doing the mental trick I did in Austraila, where in my head, I pre-scan every word I am about to say, looking for any mentions of numerical data that would have to be converted to metric. You'd think it doesn't come up that often, but having someone scratch their head and wonder what "85 degrees" feels like, or how long "75 feet" is, or how much "180 pounds" weighs several times in a single conversation, and you quickly realize that we americans use numbers and our antiquated english system of metrics when describing things on a steady basis.

What was really strange, however, was realizing that Neale had also seen every episode of the Simpsons ever, and like most of my close friends, at any moment either one of us would drop a Simpsons quote and we'd know exactly what the other person was talking about.