Hilarity works

Numlock News is a daily newsletter by Walt Hickey that highlights the context and importance of the numbers you read about in the news.

I read it every day.

Not only does it teach me about the world, but it’s often amusing, too.

Sometimes hilarious in a surprising and comic way, like this entry, which I will allow you to read and enjoy without any preamble except to say that one of the best ways to convey information in a meaningful and memorable way is to also make it funny.

Humor is a powerful tool when deployed well. Hickey is particularly masterful in this particular case:

Viewers

A prominent cosplay event got 14 million viewers on the BBC this weekend, as a decent chunk of the country tuned in to watch the Archbishop of Canterbury announce in an elaborate costumed ceremony that a wealthy septuagenarian who is king still very much continues to be king. Much like when Disney puts new skin on tired old animatronics in an archaic attraction, this resulted in a brief surge of interest in the country. The event, sort of an elaborate Make-A-Wish thing put on by the landed gentry of the previously globe-spanning but today barely even European island, was put on for the benefit of a guy named Charles. The man, who until recently was more closely linked to Wales, is best known to a global audience as a relative of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Harry Windsor of California. The most acute ramification is that none of the British people I know will be at work tomorrow, not because of some kind of wildcat general strike in enlightened defiance of the disgraceful notion that anyone is born inherently better than anyone else, but because the new boss gave them the day.