Into the Wardrobe

Threadjack: I'm one of those who don't understand why people get so uppity about the metric system. (Oh no!) I see people all the time online saying "hurhur that imperial stuff is stoopid! Why would we use measurements based in twelves? Dur!" Tell me, exactly, why it's any less arbitrary to measure things with a system based in tens than one based in twelves? I suspect the real "argument" from those people isn't "Ten-based measurements make more sense than twelve-based measurements" but rather "I hate the British Empire!"

Re the presumed inconsistency in having

" ... Shasta mount the horse given to him by Lunes hunting party in a moment, causing a remark of lord Darrin [on how well Shasta mounts] - whereas two days ealier at the tombs he e[n]vies Aravis 'Shasta wished he could mount like that'." --

this involves no real inconsistency, if Shasta mounts more skillfully than Lord Darrin but less skillfully than Aravis (who has *also* had a Talking Horse available to teach her ... )

Another inconsistency bothers me more: in THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW, we learn that the humans in Narnia heard the stars singing just as soon as they saw the stars appear (suggesting that sound in Narnia travels as fast as light), but in THE LAST BATTLE the humans (and others) hear the Giant Time blow his horn only some seconds *after* they see him blow it (and Lewis specifically states that this happened because sound travels slower than light ... ) ...

?!?!