Scientific Conversions

[Garson O'Toole]

James Harbeck wrote:
> I was expecting to see among them the basic unit of beauty, the
> millihelen -- a unit of beauty sufficient to launch one ship (since
> Helen had the face that launched a thousand ships).

Many of the items on the list of humorous measurements posted by Joel
are on a list that was posted to the newsgroup rec.humor.funny twenty
years ago on June 5, 1991.

The millihelen mentioned by James Harbeck is included in the 1991
list. Here is a link to the post in the Google Groups repository:

http://goo.gl/4TgYB

Millihelen is listed in Wikitionary, in Wikipedia, in the Urban
Dictionary, and in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. I do
not see the term in the OED. Wikitionary gives a 1983 cite. HDAS
presents a 1969 cite.

I found a citation dated November 13, 1958 which I will post about
when I get a chance to look a bit further. Or someone can scoop me.
The Wikitionary entry reprints an interesting claim made by Asimov.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/millihelen

Garson

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