I’m tired and that makes me very suspicious. Is the student who wrote the following trying to be a smart-ass or is he writing this in earnest?
I don’t think Arnold Schwarzenegger was much of an intellectual when he first came to this country but, over the years, his encounter with the highly educated people of California made him one.
Huh?
In case anybody is wondering, the question had to do with the Spanish intellectuals who went into exile as a result of the Spanish Civil War.
Clarissa's Blog 
I thought it was Terminator who was the intellectual, but now your student is saying it was Schwarzenegger himself. This is confusing.
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When I first heard that Californians elected the Terminator as their governor, I laughed. And then I discovered that they actually did.
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My mouth is twitching right now. And I have no idea how Arnold Schwarzenegger was involved with the Spanish Civil War. Perhaps your student thinks Arnold is a Spanish intellectual? You should ask him/her what Schwarzenegger thought of Guernica. 😛
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Well, aren’t all those folks from California who have funny accents Spanish? 🙂
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I assume the point they are *trying* to make is that none of these Spaniards *were* intellectuals until they went into exile in the grand ol’ US-of-A? Otherwise this is a total non sequitur as well as just bizarre!
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Didn’t Arnie baby come from Austria? And didn’t Spain once rule Austria (or vice versa)? I mean wasn’t the Spanish civil war about who should rule Spain? And weren’t the Wars of the Spanish/Austrian sccession … um sucession about the same issue? Don’t be so hard on the students when they come so close. Surely a century or five is a close enough approximation?
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Ah, that makes sense. The Austrian royal family was in power in Spain until 1700. Now it’s all starting to make sense.
Not.
🙂 🙂
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