Wow, that's mind-blowing to me! I've lived in Australia and the UK and it's been assigned seating all my life - this system sounds like carnage.

Wait was assigned seating not standard in American theatres?

Heard this for the first time on Radio 3 yesterday, really cool stuff!

Oh very cool! That might be with a trip across London for...

But you don't hear the original order. They don't say "4 half pints please". There's nothing to indicate that what they've already had is in any way related to a "standard pint" other than it being smaller. And in an imperial system that's pretty common, just a stack of different measures.

In Australia (and I'm pretty sure also in NZ) the standard unit IS something close to a half-pint, but it always has a colloquial name like Pot or Schooner. Pints are something you're aware of but rarely treat yourself to. So to an Aussie this all tracks perfectly.

I'll have to give it a listen!

DG have been doing reissues of some of their classic vinyls, I really hope some of these get done