One of the (many) quirky things about Boston is how the Harvard Bridge (which crosses the Charles River and leads, no, not to Harvard but to MIT) is measured in smoots - 364.4 smoots and an ear, to be exact. In 1958, an MIT fraternity used a freshman pledge named Oliver Smoot to mark off the length of the span. Their smootmarks became so well known that when the state rebuilt the bridge about 10 years ago, it kept the markings.
Oliver Smoot is now halfway through his term as president of the ISO, which is a federation of national standards bodies. Before that, he served as chairman of the ANSI board of directors.
Via overstated.
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