I have been in the process of
converting old LPs into digital music files recently, ever since I got a
turntable hooked up to my computer. As it has been a while since I�ve had a
turntable, I�ve been listening to a lot of albums that I haven�t heard in ten
years!
The Frantics were a sketch
comedy group that aired on CBC Radio in the early-to-mid 1980s. They released
an album on the CBC�s own record label back in 1984 called �Frantic Times.�
(It�s long since gone out of print, but I still have my
copy.)
One of the sketches is a real
gem�I heard it last night for the first time in ten years, and the humour
still holds up. Imagine you�re in Ancient Rome and the government has decreed
that you will no longer count in Roman numerals, but in this newfangled
�decimal� system. If you�re not a youngster who�s learning it in school,
chances are you�ll grumble and moan and make disparaging remarks about how
�impossible� the decimal system is to learn.
(Yes, yes, we all know that it
never happened that way; that Hindu/Arabic numbers and the concept of zero
arrived in Europe after the
Roman Empire fell� but let�s not get facts get in the way of a few chuckles.
<smile>)
Obviously, this sketch was
written at a time when the majority of the Canadian population was still
adjusting to SI, so it�s a good commentary on the times the writers were
living in.
I�ve posted sound files of the
sketch to my website:
WMA: 256 KHz encoding,
6 MB
http://www.2kents.com/files/Roman_Numerals.WMA
MP3: 192 KHz encoding,
4.49 MB
http://www.2kents.com/files/RomanNumerals_TheFrantics.mp3
Enjoy! :-)
�Kent
