Egads, you mentioned me on Hacker News. Sorry, "Hacker" "News".
I don't think it's happened before; what does one do in this situation?
I always loved the "chocolate-covered banana and integration of European currency systems" formulation. As you (quite correctly) point out, the obvious unconnectedness of the one with the other is the most fundamental aspect of the problem, and calling it "XY" loses that.