Numbers and Remembering

On Sunday at a gas station in Brewster, NY I saw a license plate with the letters II IXXI, and I pondered a little, because I did not immediately derive sense from this combination of letters. When I asked my students if they had any thoughts, after I suggested 2 9/11, one offered that the II could be a representation of the Twin Towers. On my way home this afternoon I saw another license plate that read IXXI-USA, and I now think my student was probably correct; I am always amazed at how much information we can abbreviate in the eight spaces of most license plates.

Roman numerals were on my mind, because I had put a question in the Miscellany category of a Latin 2 Jeopardy game asking how a Roman would express 1776. My students temporarily forgot some of the higher Roman numerals, so I offer here a mnemonic sentence that I have encountered in a few different sources: If Victor's Xray Looks Clear, Don't Medicate. The letters I, V, X, L, C, D, M are the basic Roman numerals standing for one (I), five (V), ten (X), fifty (L), one hundred (C), five hundred (D), and one thousand (M). So 1776 would be MDCCLXXVI, and you can see these numbers on the back of an American one dollar bill.