19 October 2007

Chávez / Castro alliance: growing?

I was discombobulated by the headline of an article in Guardian:


Indeed, Comical Hugo barely leaves Fidel's sickbed lately, and the alliance is quite tight, cemented and all that. However, the adjective "growing" in the headline remained a mystery to me, since there is no indication in the article that will suggest growth of anything.

To improve my understanding (an my English) I ran to the dictionary, an here it is:

The first option, "Increasing in size or degree or amount", as I have mentioned, is not shown by the article. Not clearly, anyway.

"Having or showing vigorous vegetal or animal life" - Hugo seems fairly frisky, as usual, however to attribute either vegetal or animal signs of life to Fidel would be a bit of exaggeration.

"Relating to or suitable for growth" gets us back to number 1, without any solution in sight.

Unless, of course... no, it can hardly be true, even after re-reading the article from the beginning:
...Hugo Chávez has signed a string of agreements in Cuba with the country's temporary leader, Raul Castro...
Raul, Hugo and Fidel - in a bizarre ménage à trois?

Nah...

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