Maybe it was an inside joke. Or perhaps the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was simply short on sleep when he mangled the name of his Egyptian counterpart - President Mohammed Morsi - and combined it with that of his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. Either way, the near-blunder was a surreal moment in a country that is just barely dealing with reality.

During a visit to Cairo on Wednesday, Mr Abbas caught himself quickly when he started to thank "President Mohammed Hos ..." for inviting him to Egypt. Mr Morsi barely flinched at the gaffe, but the slip was noticeable enough that observers had a field day.

Verbal slips have been a part of politics for as long as leaders have led. George W Bush, a gift to comedy writers, once pronounced a Spanish prime minister's name in a way that switched his gender. Headline writers have often mentioned that most-wanted terrorist, Obama bin Laden.

But what made this week's mash-up memorable was that it wasn't really funny. Mr Morsi often says he is a democratically elected leader, but his actions could often be confused with those of his predecessor.