[Tutor] The Boolean operator "and"

[Dick Moores]

I have a question about one sentence in the fine Python book I'm 
presently studying, Practical Python, by Magnus Lie Hetland (Apress). The 
sentence is "Actually, if x is false, it returns x--otherwise it returns 
y." This sentence is in the paragraph on p. 109 that begins,

'The Boolean operators have one interesting property: They only evaluate 
what they need to. For instance, the expression  x and y  requires both x 
and y to be true; so if x is false, the expression returns false 
immediately, without worrying about y. Actually, if x is false, it 
returns x--otherwise it returns y. (Can you see how this give the 
expected meaning?) This behavior is called short-circuit logic: the 
Boolean operators are often called logical operators, and as you can see, 
the second value is sometimes "short-circuited." This works with or, too. 
In the expression x or y, if x is true, it is returned, otherwise y is 
returned. (Can you see how this makes sense?)'

In the sentence I'm questioning, "Actually, if x is false, it returns 
x--otherwise it returns y", it seems to me that if x evaluates to False, 
False is returned, not x itself, (which might be "3 > 4").

Am I confused? Or quibbling?

Thanks,

Dick Moores