Hoo

This afternoon, as I was reading the Sunday Times, I learnt about the Sri Lankan measurement of Hoo!. That is the distance a person can walk away from another person and still hear them shouting Hoo!. An entirely practical measurement, obviously for distance, although for travelling it would be quite impractical to measure. No this measurement has a number of uses which would be easy to establish in an otherwise difficult to measure way, using decible metres and reverbaration analysis.

For example, Is this a well insulated house? Someone could stand in the sitting room shouting Hoo. Upstairs someone could listen see if they could hear a noise. Estate agents could use this as a selling point for the property so buyers would instantly know if their desired property was Hoo compliable. A radio at an approprate volume could presumably also be used if only one person is viewing the house and the estate agent didn't want to play ball.

Equally http://www.stare.com/2002/weak14.html has established another use for it as a measurement to enable campers to remain in peace and quite, away from others.

Venues, when deciding when to use or invest in a public address system could use the measurement as a indication of the neccessity. Able to produce a map of the building indicating which were Hoo and which were not, a kind of Chinese Ying or Yang.

When allowing the kids to go out and play in the street, a parent could specify that the children could not stray more than a Hoo!s length from the house as dinner was not far away. This would allow a child ample freedom to roam as far as the feared, without incurring the the wrath of the parent, and maintain a tacit control over the child's movements.
Obviously as with all measurements in the west there is a desire to standardise them so that everone is even, for example, the roman cubit was from your little finger to your shoulder, so any roman lady wanting to buy some cloth would presumably send the tallest most gangly slave to market. This has often led to strange measurements being created, the candle or furlong for example. But the Hoo! has a great practical useage which has no equivilent in English and I call for it to be used in everyday language.