The Rules for Writing Roman Numerals

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@don_t_ask

What I have always wondered is how did they say these numbers, “From the Coliseum its Lions Ex Ex Ex Vee Eye Eye Eye, Christians Vee Eye Eye?”

They’d never have that scoreline, because the Christians never figured out how to eat lions.

[HeyHomie]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

They’d never have that scoreline, because the Christians never figured out how to eat lions.

My dear grandmother, may she rest in peace, had a photo album of her and Grandpa’s trip to Europe. One of her treasured snapshots was a pic of some feral cats who had taken up residence in the ruins of the Coliseum. There under the photo she had written the caption:

Lions 1
Christians 0

---

Grandma always had a sense of humor.

[Hail_Ants]

@ekedolphin

The National Football League in the United States uses Roman numerals instead of Arabic numbers or years to denote its Super Bowl championship game. Super Bowl L (50) is scheduled to take place in 2016, and there have been calls to change the name to “Super Bowl 50” because of the negative connotations of the letter “L”, frequently held up on one’s forehead in the U.S. as if to say, “Loooooser!”

Not being much of a football fan I never thought of this, but yeah, I can almost guarantee you they’ll call it Super Bowl 50. Along with the whole ‘loser’ thing, the phrase Super Bowl el just sounds awkward and stupid! I remember for the thirtieth one they successfully avoided any ‘porn’ connotation with ‘XXX’ but instead capitalized on the whole ‘to the extreme, extra-extra-extra large’ thing!

[Colophon]

@Hail_Ants

Not being much of a football fan I never thought of this, but yeah, I can almost guarantee you they’ll call it Super Bowl 50. Along with the whole ‘loser’ thing, the phrase Super Bowl el just sounds awkward and stupid! I remember for the thirtieth one they successfully avoided any ‘porn’ connotation with ‘XXX’ but instead capitalized on the whole ‘to the extreme, extra-extra-extra large’ thing!

Surely they don’t call Super Bowl XLVII “Super Bowl ex ell vee eye eye”, though, do they? Isn’t it “Super Bowl Forty Seven”? So why would anyone call it “Super Bowl ell”?

[HeyHomie]

@Hail_Ants

Not being much of a football fan I never thought of this, but yeah, I can almost guarantee you they’ll call it Super Bowl 50. Along with the whole ‘loser’ thing, the phrase Super Bowl el just sounds awkward and stupid! I remember for the thirtieth one they successfully avoided any ‘porn’ connotation with ‘XXX’ but instead capitalized on the whole ‘to the extreme, extra-extra-extra large’ thing!

I’m thinking they’ll go with Super Bowl XXXXX.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Colophon

Surely they don’t call Super Bowl XLVII “Super Bowl ex ell vee eye eye”, though, do they?

No.

[Colophon]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

No.

So why is Super Bowl L a problem? It’ll be spelt that way, but pronounced [del]Throatwobbler Mangrove[/del] Super Bowl Fifty.

I can’t believe the “loser” connotation is that prevalent. Just make a big thing of it… Super Bowl 50… one L of a contest. I’ll give 'em that slogan for free.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

It’s not a problem because hardly anybody - including American football fans - even knows which Super Bowl we’re on now anyway. If anything, the only issue might be that people mistake the L for something other than the Roman numeral, as in “hey, why is there an L after Super Bowl on this T-shirt?” I suspect it was just a slow news day at the WSJ.

If anything, I expect they’ll just start naming Super Bowls after the years they occur in, like every other fucking sport.

[ZenBeam]

@HeyHomie

I’m thinking they’ll go with Super Bowl XXXXX.

Much more awesome than Super Bowl L. Marketing saves the day!

[cochrane]

I remember during Super Bowl XL, it was often referred to as “Super Bowl Extra Large.”

[HeyHomie]

@ZenBeam

Much more awesome than Super Bowl L. Marketing saves the day!

I’ll be expecting my royalty check from the NFL.

[Hail_Ants]

@Colophon

So why is Super Bowl L a problem? It’ll be spelt that way, but pronounced [del]Throatwobbler Mangrove[/del] Super Bowl Fifty.

I can’t believe the “loser” connotation is that prevalent. Just make a big thing of it… Super Bowl 50… one L of a contest. I’ll give 'em that slogan for free.

Well, football fans are not known for their, subtlety. Just the visual appearance of the phrase** Super Bowl L** is also awkward and odd looking. Where as:

***Super Bowl *50

looks awesome!