Wired has a kinda sorta somewhat okay list of fanciful units to measure unordinary things. The list is mostly boring, and covers your Twitter-based (milliscobles) and your Futurama-coined (megaFonzies). My personal favorite is “mustache density”, but I’m not a fan of the offered unit. Any mustache measurer worth his salt has to know that Tom Selleck gets the Golden Comb award. The phrase “mustache density” is really the top reason to read the Wired post, but honorable mention to the following.
Thaum (magic)
In Terry Pratchett’s The Last Continent, the thaum is the unit used to quantify magic. One thaum is the amount of mystical energy required to conjure up one small white pigeon, or three normal-sized billiard balls, and can be measured, up to one million thaums, by a thaumometer. If there is more magic than that around, measuring it should not be your primary concern.
I always find myself wishing I had read more Pratchett every time I come across something like this. One of these days I may actually do it. But all these measurements just bring to mind my favorite: the Smith Wetness Index (SWI), soon to be explained to you at a blog that is this one!
