Hail Thee,

> I don't know why Americans felt the need to reduce the size of a pint (and therefore a gallon)
> but no doubt they had a good reason.

Yeah, like trying to rip off customers on a per pint basis :)

But I see that I found an expert. Good ! There is one question that I have been pondering for some time now. In fact ever since I first read the myterious legend "floz" on bottles of perfume. Growing up meant I got (relatively speaking here) smarter. So nowadays I know that 1 floz is in fact 1 fluid ounce. But what the heck is that ? Why is there a need to have ounzes for fluids and (supposedly) other ounces for non fluid stuff ?

Side issues for the really smart:
1) Hmmm, would that be "sooz" for solid ounce ?
2) Why is "ounce" abbreviated "oz" ? (which always reminded me of The Wizard of Oz anyway)