#popbitch — Public Fediverse posts

Excellent news from Popbitch, Giles Coren continues to suffer!

#Popbitch #GilesCoren

So did everyone know that the guy who co-wrote this song also did the music for Suspiria? I only learned today thanks to #Popbitch

#BlackLace #ClaudioSimonetti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5enof77RU

There was a story in today's #Popbitch about an unfortunate journalist who mispronounced the XCX in #CharliXCX (which you just say "ecks see ecks")

I was thinking "oh no, did they call her Charli [Roman numerals]?"

but no, they called her "Charli Zzzyyykkchkks", as in 'xylophone'

which is pretty cringe, but made me laugh that I had assumed it was going to be a #RomanNumeral issue

While trying to figure out what XCX would be in #RomanNumerals I found this nifty calculator

https://www.numere-romane.ro/convert-roman-numerals-to-arabic-numbers.php

XCX turns out not to be a valid Roman number because using the subtractive formula by which you subtract the first letter from the second

(which is why IX = 10 - 1 = 9)

you'd get

XC = 100 - 10 = 90

but then the extra C just adds another 10 back on, so it's a nonsense way of saying 100

This made me reflect on how as a kid I learned the rules of Roman numerals by osmosis by watching movies and TV shows that ended with the production year in Roman numerals

e.g. MCMLXXXVII

(a number I plucked off the top of my head that offers inadvertent insight into my age)

1000 + 900 + 50 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 1 = 1987

Like, the three main rules are:

1. You arrange the letters from the highest value to the lowest and then add them up

2. V, L and D can only be used once in a number. You can use I, X, C and M up to three times in a row, but only those letters. You have to use Rule 3 to get more precise numbers

3. When you put a numeral with a lower value in front of one with a higher value, you subtract the lower number from the higher number. But you can only use the subtractive letter once in the number, which is why XCX doesn't work

Today I learned a new rule:

4. Putting brackets around a Roman numeral adds "thousand" to the end of its value. (Sometimes this is also shown with a macron – the straight horizontal accent – over the letter)

V = 5
(V) = 5000
L = 50
(L) = 50,000