The full quote in dirty imperial units:

I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I’m free.

– The Fast and the Furious

How was this translated to metric?

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    3
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Interesting-- does the word exist at all? Can you talk about a reliable appliance as something you can “get a lot of mileage” from?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      16 hours ago

      We’d say: ‘What is the usage (of fuel) of your car’ it’s usually expressed in his expressed in kilometers per liter.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        26 hours ago

        Right, but beyond that we’ve got further definitions of the word meaning “usefulness” or “getting benefit from”. So like a clip that had lasting support throughout a political campaign that can be used over and over could be described as something you “get a lot of mileage out of”. Does that exist in metric countries?

        https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mileage

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          32 hours ago

          I think this idiom is specific to english-speaking north america, due to it being vast and car-centric, we have a similar idiom that means hardy, reliable and getting things done - workhorse, this one is used in multiple slavic languages and in english (I think).

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          35 hours ago

          I’m not aware of a specific idiom that conveys that meaning in my language. We’d say ‘it’s economical/thrifty’ but there’s no car related idiom. A combined word like ‘kilometerrendement’ might be conjured up, but isn’t in common use.

          As sayings go, they predate the petrol engine like : ‘that’ll keep the stove burning for a while’ or ‘sailing with the wind’