Sunday, February 05, 2012
Shouldn't have tried it
NPR runs a feature this morning attempting to explain Roman Numerals to young folks watching the World Series, or whatever it is. Apparently each annual Super-Hockey-Golf Festival, or whatever it is, has a roman numeral on it for some reason.
In the first place, somebody should have seen immediately that this wasn't going to work on radio. You need a blackboard or an animation.
In the second place, learning mnemonics for the basic letters of the roman system doesn't get you anywhere near understanding the system. You can remember forever that I is one, V is five, X is ten, and so on; but until you know the complicated rules for combining the letters, you don't know anything worth keeping.
In the third place, the mnemonics were based on an assumed knowledge of rap-rop, or whatever it is. The rhyme for L = 50 involved a connection between "Fifty Cents" and "L Magazine", which are apparently rip-rap groups; when the announcer suggested that not everyone will know what a "Fifty Cents" is, they tried an alternate rhyme featuring Samuel L. Jackson, who is apparently another ripper or hopster or racketeer or whatever you call it.
Seriously, where's the editor? NPR is generally biased to the left, but it's also a cut above other left or right media in terms of common sense and depth of message.
Common sense and depth failed on this one! ¶ 8:33 AM
In the first place, somebody should have seen immediately that this wasn't going to work on radio. You need a blackboard or an animation.
In the second place, learning mnemonics for the basic letters of the roman system doesn't get you anywhere near understanding the system. You can remember forever that I is one, V is five, X is ten, and so on; but until you know the complicated rules for combining the letters, you don't know anything worth keeping.
In the third place, the mnemonics were based on an assumed knowledge of rap-rop, or whatever it is. The rhyme for L = 50 involved a connection between "Fifty Cents" and "L Magazine", which are apparently rip-rap groups; when the announcer suggested that not everyone will know what a "Fifty Cents" is, they tried an alternate rhyme featuring Samuel L. Jackson, who is apparently another ripper or hopster or racketeer or whatever you call it.
Seriously, where's the editor? NPR is generally biased to the left, but it's also a cut above other left or right media in terms of common sense and depth of message.
Common sense and depth failed on this one! ¶ 8:33 AM
