Sir, - The one great benefit of moving into the year 2000 will be that film and television companies won't be able (for a few years anyway) to bamboozle the viewer with the date of production. Admittedly they fulfil the requirement to show the date - but, in a deliberate act of obfuscation, in Roman numerals. Thus, 1999 is transmuted into MCMXCIX; I wonder how many viewers can interpret that.
But in eight months we'll get our own back; the year 2000 should appear as MM, which even non-classical scholars should be able to manage. - Yours, etc.,
David Sowby, Knocksinna Crescent, Dublin 18.