A Long Division

[abu nuwas]

For once, I 'got' it -- but you have spoiled my triumph by explaining! Elsewhere, there has been much discussion of 'ambiguity' and the idea that the reader should not expect to receive what the writer may have intended, but merely take away whatever he or she gets. As it chances, for personal reasons, this brought back only too much.

Banshees in Alabam? I was brought up to be terrified at the prospect of hearing the wail of the banshee by the wayside of some lonely road in Ireland, where I had never been....