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 }
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.
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.
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.
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?”
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?
chris y 05.16.08 at 12:59 pm
scm – closer reading of text advised.
SCM 05.16.08 at 1:56 pm
chris y — that would require greater quantities of caffene.
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.
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.
David in NY 05.16.08 at 7:23 pm
“The Franco joke is an evergreen.”
Yup, what I was going to say.
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”?
john b 05.18.08 at 5:34 pm
a) Borges
b) temperature
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.
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?
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.
Comments on this entry are closed.