Still Dead

by John Holbo on May 16, 2008

A few commenters have complained that they misread my post title, below, as concerned with Prediction Markets in Republican Spain, which would have been a far more inventive topic. We apologize for the inconvenience but have nothing to add to prior work in this field.

But I have added a new category, ‘the water pitcher is still broken’, for future usage. (I expect that discussions of the Republican party, in the months to come, may fall naturally under this heading.)

{ 15 comments }

1

bad Jim 05.16.08 at 4:53 am

I read it as “Republican Spain” too. Perhaps it had something to do with the bold serif typeface of the title. Of course, such a thought might be deemed prima face facist.

2

ejh 05.16.08 at 8:09 am

There is however a Republic Day celebrated by some people in Spain: the flag of the Republic is displayed. Last year I was in a Huesca café on the day and at the next day, some old guy had his prison release with him: rubbernecking, I saw that the date on it was something like 1954. Presumably fifteen years in prison and all that time never knowing whether you were going to be shot.

3

chris 05.16.08 at 10:32 am

The mistake seems to be a common one. A few years ago, Warwickshire and England bowler Ashley Giles had a benefit season. To raise a few pounds, he thought he’d get some mugs made bearing the motto “Ashley Giles – King of Spin”. They came back from the potter reading “Ashley Giles – King of Spain.”
It’s a moot point which was the more accurate description.

4

Andy Wilton 05.16.08 at 11:48 am

I would second bad jim’s suggestion that it’s a font readability problem: I managed to read the title of the previous post as “Horse size doubles?”

5

SCM 05.16.08 at 12:15 pm

Why would a reference to Republican Spain be deemed as prima facie fascist, when it was the fascists who extinguished the second Spanish Republic?

6

chris y 05.16.08 at 12:59 pm

scm – closer reading of text advised.

7

SCM 05.16.08 at 1:56 pm

chris y — that would require greater quantities of caffene.

8

Matt L. 05.16.08 at 2:04 pm

Rats. I read it as Prediction Markets in Republican Spain too. That would have been much more interesting.

9

lemuel pitkin 05.16.08 at 6:36 pm

The Franco joke is an evergreen. But the title would have been *in* Republican Spain, not about Republican Spain. So it could have been a new study about how the bolsa responded to news from the front.

… except it was apparently shuttered during the war.

… and that would be more dsquared’s thing, anyway.

10

David in NY 05.16.08 at 7:23 pm

“The Franco joke is an evergreen.”

Yup, what I was going to say.

11

Dan 05.18.08 at 11:00 am

Am I the only semi-regular reader utterly baffled by the category headings? I’m sure the water pitcher is a clever allusion to something, but I have no idea what.

While we’re at it, what’s the difference between “Intellects vast and warm and sympathetic” and ”
Intellects vast and cool and highly sympathetic”?

12

john b 05.18.08 at 5:34 pm

a) Borges

b) temperature

13

Robert Waldmann 05.19.08 at 1:41 am

ejh so you were in a café in Huesca on Republic day. I suspect that you have read “Homage to Catalonia.”
I actually own a copy of the Catalan translation of “Homage to Catalonia” which, unfortunately, I can’t read.

14

DavidS 05.19.08 at 3:10 pm

On the vague topic of misunderstandings that are more interesting than the truth, I assume someone has already pointed this out to you?

15

ejh 05.21.08 at 7:57 pm

ejh so you were in a café in Huesca on Republic day.

Indeed: I was drinking coffee.

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