XLIX

       OK, so our great local sportswriter beat me to it in text.

       "Super Bowl XLIX--the game whose Roman numerals make it sound like a laxative--" Bill Plaschke wrote in The Times today about the Big Game.

       Yessss.

       But isn't it ridiculous?  These pretentious Roman Numerals that must be summoned each year, and refigured--let's see, "L" is 50 and since the "X," which is 10 is before the L, that means take 10 away--so 40--and then X with an "I" which is one before it, takes away one, leaving 9:  49.  

       It's like the game is carved in stone, which, I suppose isn't too different after all from Gwyneth Lewis's Welsh/English poem on Friday seemingly carved in stone or brass in the side of a building to celebrate two great languages.