My Left Foot.

This morning we were discussing the legal dimensions of the British Standard allotment. It would seem that the size is 10 rods (aka poles and perches in the archaic British system of obsolete imperial units). Google failed to resolve the problem that the size of an allotment is an area while a rod (pole or perch) is a unit of length, but it would seem that the 10 rods is the combined length of two adjacent sides with the possibility that the ratio of the two aforementioned sides is two to one. I hope you're all following this, there will be a test tomorrow.

Medieval ploughing was done with oxen, up to 4 pairs at a time. The ploughman handled the plough while his boy controlled the oxen using a stick. This stick was the rod (pole or perch) which had to be long enough to reach the nose of the lead ox from the back of the plough. It became the obvious implement with which to measure lengths, for example, 4 poles to make a chain (otherwise known as a cricket pitch).

The piece de resistance that had us rolling on the floor was:
"In the 16th century the lawful rod was decreed to be the combined length of the left feet of 16 men as they left church on a Sunday morning."
I'm not making this up, you know.

Q. So how long is this rod, pole or perch?
A. Sixteen and a half feet - now what's that in London buses?

Today’s back blip is “One Man” from the 22nd of July, and that now brings me up to date.