We spent the first twenty minutes of the always abbreviated Sunday Staff Meeting trying to figure out the single most important event of a drizzling Sunday. No, it wasn’t about trying to figure out where the moisture was coming from. It might be the remnants of the big Vortex in the jet stream that deluged the West Coast? Didn’t the forecast say there were two of them coming?

Then there was the disbelief about the time of the big football game. Where we come from, those contests were played in daylight. The first of the puzzles is whether the kickoff for the game was adjusted to permit singer Taylor Swift to arrive after her flight back from Narita International in Japan to see her boyfriend play. Her presence was considered significant enough for the New York Times to address the issue as a matter of national significance, saying:

“Way back in July, Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end, publicly offered himself as a potential suitor for Ms. Swift, whose current “Eras Tour” has, in the words of the Times writers: “catapulted her above her already stratospheric fame.”

We had never heard of her before, or if we had, it was just another name in the cascade of personalities who will parade before us through the election this Fall. We took a poll about the matter. Generally speaking, we agreed she is a lovely person whose music is terra incognita to our now fading generation. That launched immediately to a discussion of age and fitness to run complicated things like a tour that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars, and has made her opinion on suitable national Chief Executives a matter of public interest.

There was other news besides the late start to the game out in Las Vegas. Two helicopters have already crashed in the vicinity. One of them carried international bankers and their families and the other five Marines who were going away. That led to a discussion of the teams who will be competing to be crowned “World Champs.” That is a little selective, since the game is only played here in the United States.

Which is not an exclusive deal, since the NFL leadership has scheduled games for several years in London, UK, Germany and next year in Brazil. We are not sure if they will play those matches in daylight or not. Then the conversation lurched into the name of the Game today. The logo had most of us baffled, since it is in Roman numerals: “LVIII.”

Splash was of the opinion that it ought to be pronounced something like ‘La-Vieie!” He added an exclamation point for clarity. Deciphering it required a search for the laptop, discovering the battery was dead, the white cord needed to plug it into our Green Energy delivery system, and clicking our way through the multi-stage launch process. At that point we saw not an explanation of the letters that are supposed to be numbers, but rather an image of Ms. Swift soaking in the rains that may have come from the Polar Vortex, which isn’t cold, but is certainly wet. This was the image, borrowed from the Times (shown only for low-resolution identification purposes only).

As to the numbers thing, you can see there is some confusion at the NFL as well, since Ms. Swift apparently is going to “LVI,” as shown above. An extended conversation followed about the meaning of the numerals that will permit her return to the Continental United States in a timely manner. Here is the deal: the numbers are imported from Rome. They represent a numeric system that uses lettters to express numbers collectively. no actual Romans remain to explain it, but we understand the letters I, V. X, L, C, D and M actually represent numbers. These were used from Rome’s time as center of the world, and continued up through the Middle Ages when sports involving balls had to be played in daylight.

We are blessed this year that the teams in competition are both from cities with issues. As a group, we have been through Kansas City without regret, and San Fransisco whose civic demise, except for professional sports, has been deeply regretted.

The big question before breakfast and holy services was the meaning of the letter “L.”

Our Section Leader DeMille had to break it down for the group on the damp Patio. “Roman Numerals represent a number system using letters to express numbers collectively. The ancient Romans used for the purpose of counting and performing other day-to-day transactions. Today, the Roman letters are utilized as general suffixes for people across generations, like Charles III, the King of England.”

“Is he flying in for the Game? He would be going West while Taylor is going East. Is that why kick-off is so late?”

That started another discussion about who had the faster jet, and whether the British Monarch had his own box at the stadium. Or whether the half-time show would have some real surprises. The other problem was when we could legitimately start consuming the external liquid modifications to our blood-streams that normally accompany the start of the game. And the arrival of royalty, whether it is from east or west!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com