Andrew Stuttaford asks of the Guardian:

...is there something a bit unsettling about the way that has been written?

You mean, besides the fact that they can't spell mischievous? The writer apparently spells it the way the writer (mistakenly) pronounces it.

This is one of my pet peeves. Many people wrongly pronounce this word MISCHEEVEEUS, four syllables, accent on the second syllABle, when there is no long ee sound after the vee, but this is the first time I've seen someone actually spell it that way (perhaps attempting to resolve the disparity between the actual word and the way he wants to pronounce it). It's three syllables--MISchievous.

And, yes, that's not the only problem with the paragraph he quotes.

Sympathy for the Devil.

Have you ever eaten a sangwich in Warshington? I certainly haven't, but I have a great big knuckle sangwich for anyone who has.

I get cross-eyed at people who pronounce the vowel sound in merry, Mary, ferry, fairy, bury and berry all the same.

But I'm taking medicine for that now and feel much better.

An on-line slang dictionary defines "mischevious" as "being mischievous and devious at the same time."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mischevious

I don't know if that's what the writer intended, but it seems appropriate in context.

Never mind mischievous, what about people who substitute "homogenous" for "homogeneous"?

Homogenous is a smoother pronunciation.

It might be slang, or it might be business as usual at The Grauniad.

*YAWN*, Certainly Rand can do better things to do then get petty about how people pronounce a word.

Alright then, let's have a conversation about the content of the Guardian article. What's the deal? Is the Guardian just doing its part to ensure that peace reigns throughout the world by protraying an unstable and immoral madman as just another chameleon-like politician? That it's his mischievous grin which unnerves the flighty right, rather than his stated vision of a world without the US and without Israel?

One wonders if in the 1930's they'd have commented on that puckish Hitler with his cute little affectation of a moustache.