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'''Ann Miller''' was born on [[April 12]], [[1923]] (some sources still indicate [[1919]]) and died on [[January 22]], [[2004]]. She was an American dancer, singer and actress, who was christened '''Johnnie Lucille Collier''' in [[Chireno, Texas]] (some sources cite [[Houston, Texas]]).
'''Antimetrification''' is the process of rejecting the [[metric system]] in favor of a different system of measurement, typically the [[U.S. customary units|American]] or the different UK [[Imperial unit|Imperial]] one. Those who argue against metrification give various reasons, some of which are listed below (with typical rebuttals of those who support metrification in parentheses):
She was considered a child dance prodigy. She was given a contract with [[RKO]] allegedly at the tender age of thirteen (she had told them she was eighteen). She became famous for her roles in films such as [[Kiss Me, Kate]], [[Easter Parade]] and [[On the Town]]. Miller was famed for her speed in [[tap dancing]]; she claimed to be able to tap 500 times per minute.
*The definition of the meter changed no less than three times since 1790 (the latest being in 1965) and is currently deemed to be 1/299,792,458th of the distance light travels in one second. That's a real handy reference next time you are measuring a room for carpets or wallpaper. (In practice, the speed-of-light definition was codified based on the previous agreed length. Also, since an inch is defined as 0.0254 meter, the problem applies equally to customary units.)
*Users of such units as miles, feet and inches, tons, pounds and ounces, gallons and quarts do not have to justify themselves. (By this logic, of course, neither should those who are comfortable with grams, kilometers, or degrees Celsius.)
*American units are as accurate as metric units.
*Decimals are no more accurate than fractions. (However, decimals are easier to work with and less prone to lead to mistakes when doing calculations. Fractions as written are more accurate than decimal expansions because some simple fractions require an infinite number of decimal places for their decimal representation; an obvious example is the fraction 1/3.)
*The fact that metric units are base ten in fact has virtually no relevance either to day to day life or to scientific and engineering manipulation. This is because conversion between units of the same dimension (e.g. centimeters to kilometers) is rarely necessary or useful. (This is a debatable point in everyday life, since people convert between feet and yards, or pounds and ounces, quite frequently; but scientific and engineering applications definitely require conversions).
*A base-12 measuring system is superior to a base-10 system, as 12 has many more factors than 10. The American system of liquid measurement is actually base-2 (a gallon is 64 fluid ounces), which has other advantages.
*Because one degree Fahrenheit is smaller than one degree Centigrade, degrees Fahrenheit are more accurate. (In practice, meteorologists and other scientists who are concerned about precise temperature often report temperatures in tenths or hundredths of a degree, in either system. For example, the human body temperature, as expressed in Fahrenheit, always uses a decimal value.)
*Supporters of American units consider them to have a more human scale than metric ones. (This is highly subjective, especially when one is arguing for miles and quarts instead of kilometers and liters. Still, the yard was originally defined as the length of some dead king's arm. The meter's original definition was 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator on a meridian through Paris, France, based upon an inexact measure of the circumference of the Earth. Which one is a more human scale? Given that the two lengths are within 10% of each other, it's your call.)
*The naming system of the metric system is systematic but repetitive. Humans find words that are distinct easier to store. The metric system does not lend itself to this. (This ignores the extra information that users of most traditional systems have to learn; multipliers of 4, 5.5, 12, 14, 16, 20, 200, 220, 1760, etc. Still, it is a lot easier to divide 12 by 3 than 10, which is why metric boards come in 120-centimeter lengths, not 100.)
*Different countries using metric units show preferences for different, often non-SI units. For example, in France, agricultural production is often measured not in kilograms, or grams, but in "qx" - metric [[quintal]]s (100 kg). In this, American traditional units, standardized by international agreement in 1959, are more stable than metric units. (Again, this claim ignores the existence of troy ounces and pounds, the two slightly different [[mile]]s used in the US, and the difference between U.S. and imperial units of the same name. The quintal is no longer legal in France. Furthermore, the existance of units such as quintal, and the "metric pound" of 500 grams (non-legal, but commonly used in France and Germany for example; a U.S. pound is 453 grams) can be taken to show that the metric system allows local flexibility, while retaining ease of conversion.)
*It is often said that the United States is the only major country using a non-metric system. This is, however, false. Not only are there other countries that still mostly use their traditional units (e.g. United Kingdom - despite propaganda that claims it went metric in 1972, full metrication waited until 1999, with a few specific exemptions, such as beer in pints; however, some merchants, the [[Metric Martyrs]], refuse to sell wares by the kilogram and were prosecuted for it), but traditional units live on throughout the world. For example, France, the source of the metric system, uses pouces (inches) for tires. In Ecuador, liquids are measured in gallones. In China, distances are often measured in li. Even in countries where the government has attempted to replace traditional units, they live on. Take Canada for example: apartments are measured in square feet, lots in acres, carpentry is done in inches, etc. (Canadians sometimes use hybrid measurements--for example, automobile fuel usage is often reported in miles per liter. Tires are in inches in most countries, not only in France, it's just traditional and has nothing to do with convenience.)
*Imposing the metric system, or any system of measurement, on people against their will is undemocratic. (This argument ignores the long-standing role of governments in defining units of measurement. For purposes of trade, a standard system is needed. Besides, the system of measurement you use is imposed on you anyway, be it by a government or by local customs.)
*Metrification is not only unnecessary, but expensive. (This involves a one-time cost during the conversion process. How much is the ongoing cost of maintaining several standards, converting for international trade, and so forth? As a counter-counterargument, converting is not a "one-time cost" but an ongoing waste of money, brains, and time.)
*Those who support antimetrification often refer to events, literature and objects of certain sizes given in metric. For example:
Her father (from whom she would become estranged due to his infidelities to her mother) insisted on the name Johnnie because he had wanted a boy, but she was often called Annie. She took up dancing to help exercise her legs to help her [[rickets]]. Her film career effectively ended in [[1956]], but she remained active in the theatre. In [[1979]] she astounded audiences in the [[Broadway]] show [[Sugar Babies]]. In 1983 she won the [[Sarah Siddons Award]] for her work in [[Chicago]] theatre. In 2001 she took her last role as "Coco" in auteur director [[David Lynch]]'s movie [[Mulholland Drive (film)]].
::''Still, the Indy 500 would never be the Indy 804.67; the Daytona 500 would never also be the Daytona 804.67; an American football field would never be referred to as 91.44 meters long; Jules Verne would never write ''[[20,000 Leagues Under the Sea|96,561 Kilometers Under the Sea]]''; A 9-pound hammer would never be known as a 4.0823-kilogram hammer; Peter Piper would never pick 7570.8 cubic centimeters of pickled peppers; "You dig 14,515 kilograms and what do your get? Another day older and a deeper in debt."; top fuel drag racers would never admit to doing the 0.40234 kilometer in under 5 seconds. Oh well, if you give a proponent of the metric system 2.54 centimeters, he'll take 1.6093 kilometers.''
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ann Miller has a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.
:Of course the units peck, league etc. are not in current usage in the UK or USA, and nobody has ever felt compelled to translate them to miles or ounces. Indeed, most English speakers are not aware of the "[[peck]]" as a unit, and take it to be a non-specific word meaning "a small amount".
She died at the age of 80 (or 84) from cancer that had spread to her lungs and was interred in the [[Holy Cross Cemetery]] in [[Culver City, California]].
*Finally, there is no compelling reason to change the entrenched system that has worked for centuries on its own, and for decades alongside various versions of the metric system. If there was a valid cost benefit for business, all businesses would have changed to metric exclusively years ago. As this has not happened, and as there is no serious effort underway to make it happen, opponents of metrication argue that the minor benefits of metrication are offset by the initial cost and confusion of a large-scale conversion. (The counterargument is that claiming that a system that is more confusing and difficult to use has "worked" ignores the question of what works best. As a counter-counterargument, confusion and difficulty are relative, and one could argue that the metric system is confusing because of all the converting between customary units of measurement and the metric system, and that multiplying or dividing by powers of ten to measure things is just as confusing.) (As a second counter-argument, other factors may explain why businesses do not make the switch. American engineers have to do a lot of inches-millimeters-inches conversions as soon as they use any non-American parts for design or manufacturing.)
Similar arguments are used in the UK for retention of imperial units, though the argument that imperial measures are more "stable" is not used. This is probably due to the greater knowledge that there are different [[gallon]]s, [[ton]]s, [[pound]]s etc. used through the world.
== Filmography ==
''See also'': [[metrication]]
* ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' (1934)
* ''[[The Good Fairy]]'' (1935)
* ''[[The Devil on Horseback]]'' (1936)
* ''[[New Faces of 1937]]'' (1937)
* ''[[The Life of the Party]]'' (1937)
* ''[[Stage Door]]'' (1937)
* ''[[Radio City Revels]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Having Wonderful Time]]'' (1938)
* ''[[You Can't Take It with You]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Room Service]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Tarnished Angel]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Too Many Girls]]'' (1940)
* ''[[Hit Parade of 1941]]'' (1940)
* ''[[Melody Ranch]]'' (1940)
* ''[[Time Out for Rhythm]]'' (1941)
* ''[[Meet the Stars: Stars Past and Present]]'' (1941) (short subject)
* ''[[Screen Snapshots: Series 21, No. 1]]'' (1941) (short subject)
* ''[[Go West, Young Lady]]'' (1941)
* ''[[True to the Army]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Priorities on Parade]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Reveille with Beverly]]'' (1943)
* ''[[What's Buzzin', Cousin?]]'' (1943)
* ''[[Hey, Rookie]]'' (1944)
* ''[[Jam Session]]'' (1944)
* ''[[Carolina Blues]]'' (1944)
* ''[[Eadie Was a Lady]]'' (1945)
* ''[[Eve Knew Her Apples]]'' (1945)
* ''[[The Thrill of Brazil]]'' (1946)
* ''[[Easter Parade]]'' (1948)
* ''[[The Kissing Bandit]]'' (1948)
* ''[[Mighty Manhattan, New York's Wonder City]]'' (1949) (short subject)
* ''[[On the Town]]'' (1949)
* ''[[Watch the Birdie]]'' (1950)
* ''[[Texas Carnival]]'' (1951)
* ''[[Two Tickets to Broadway]]'' (1951)
* ''[[Lovely to Look At]]'' (1952)
* ''[[Small Town Girl]]'' (1953)
* ''[[Calamity Jane]]'' (1953) (bit part)
* ''[[Kiss Me, Kate]]'' (1953)
* ''[[Deep in My Heart]]'' (1954)
* ''[[Hit the Deck]]'' (1955)
* ''[[The Opposite Sex]]'' (1956)
* ''[[The Great American Pastime]]'' (1956)
* ''[[Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood]]'' (1976)
* ''[[A Century of Cinema]]'' (1994) (documentary)
* ''[[That's Entertainment! III]]'' (1994)
* ''[[Mulholland Dr.]]'' (2001)
== External links ==
* {{imdb name|id=0587900|name=Ann Miller}}
* [http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3422589.stm BBC obituary]
[[Category:1923 births|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:2004 deaths|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:American actors|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:U.S. stage actors|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:American film actors|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:Hollywood Walk of Fame|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:Female singers|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:Tap dancers|Miller, Ann]]
[[Category:People from Texas|Miller, Ann]]
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