Ballard Park Misspelling

Apparently the new granite being installed in Ballard's Bergen Place park has a bit of a goof: instead of "SVERIGE" the monument reads SAERIGE, with an upside-down "A" instead of a "V".

Those opposed to off-shore outsourcing will note that the granite was procured from China instead of Scandinavia as originally planned. (Of course, had it actually been carved in Sweden, it would have taken four years given all the sick-leave the workers would have claimed...)

Now is as good a time as ever to note that the name of Sweden in Swedish, sverige, is a concatenation of an old form of svea-rike, the "kingdom of the svea." Rik is cognate with German reich and, interestingly, English rich.

SAERIGE is cognate with, as far as I know, nothing.