The switch to metrics began some years ago, after a job related
incident. An elderly carpenter was looking for an apprentice. He put
an ad in the newspaper and hired a young man, who had just left high
school. He told the man that he would hire him, as long as he worked
hard, and did whatever he was instructed to do.

The first day on the job, he measured a board, handed this board to the
new apprentice, and said "go cut a foot off". Moments later he heard
the power saw start, and seconds later heard a blood curdling scream.
He ran over to the young man, and saw his apprentice laying on the
ground, with one foot sawed off his leg.

The elderly carpenter called an ambulance, and the young man was rushed
to the hospital where he was treated and survived, but lost his foot.
This incident ended up in court, after the young man's parents sued the
carpenter. The carpenter explained the incident to the judge, by
saying: "Today's youth dont learn anything in school anymore. I told
him to cut a foot off of a board, and he cut his own foot off". The
carpenter was not charged, because the judge agreed that the youth of
today and not getting a proper education.

After the court trial, the carpenter said "I'm glad I did not tell that
kid to cut a yard off". The neighbor's yard might have ended up in the
ocean."

The judge later decided something had to be done to prevent this sort of
incident from happening again, and suggested that the U.S. switch to the
metric system, to eliminate confusing words like "foot" and "yard".
since both of these words have more than one meaning.

The rest is history!