A theoretical question often
subvocally directed at
middle-class scum, the implication being that, if the questionee cannot answer accurately, he or she has lost touch with reality ('How much' refers to cost, not mass). It dates from the days when milk was sold in pint bottles, and in a post-
imperial age the question has lost much of its meaning, milk being sold in many different quantities. Nonetheless it is the question one would like to ask of
Anna Nicole Smith and her friends.
It was also a section in British film magazine Empire, in which film stars and directors were asked a series of mundane questions, culminating in the title of this node. Most of the respondents replied that they bought their milk in bulk, or that they did not look at the bill; by far the best answer was from Spike Lee, who declared that 'a pint is a pint'.