The Economist Sasses Writer… With Cornish Pasties

The normally staid British newsmagazine The Economist has some real cheeky monkeys on staff. Let us explain.

Stephen Dubner is the co-author of the bestselling book Freakonomics and writes a blog of the same name for the New York Times. In a July 8 blog post, he called out a perceived spelling error in a recent Economist story:


“Consider this lead from a recent article about a huge Mexican mining company called Fresnillo, which was recently listed on the London Stock Exchange:

In the hills north east of Mexico City it is not uncommon to find Cornish pasties for sale.

They meant to write “pastries” but, considering that miners work really hard, they might also be hoping to encounter the kind of people who go shopping for pasties.”

You see, Stephen Dubner thought the Economist was talking about, we don’t know… shortbread cookies. Not cornish pastys — meat-filled British turnovers that are also the ancestors of Jamaican beef patties.

That’s when The Economist decided to send Dubner a cornish pastie in the mail. As shown in the picture above, Dubner received a cornish pasty in the mail courtesy of the magazine.

More commentary is available over at Serious Eats and Net Writing.

Pasties, pasties everywhere [Freakonomics/NYT]

[Photos via Stephen Dubner/NYT]

The Economist Sasses Writer… With Cornish Pasties