Doug,
I quite liked your "crooked style".

Dick,
In various benighted colonies the litre is the only measure that can 'instantly' be interpreted, because the American distaste for things Imperial meant that their version of the gallon was different to the version common elsewhere.

The folklore at Mawson included (when I was there) asking the rhetorical, when doing various tiresome but essential tasks,

"What did you do in Antarctica, Daddy?"
to which the response was
"Rolled 44s, child."

Coming from Oz, many of our supplies were contained in "44 gallon drums" (as measured Imperially) but which (I gather) our American friends described as "55 gallon drums". Calling them "200s" (or "205s" if they'd been filled generously) never quite made it into the lexicon. They still "roll 44s".

Cheers, Rowan