freemarker error: expected hash. evaluated instead to freemarker.template.SimpleScalar
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My template looks like this:

      <#assign senti = "${scmr.results[model]}">
        <#if senti??>
          <td>${senti} ---- ${senti.sentimentType}</td>
          <td>${senti.score?html}</td>
        </#if>

The output looks like this:

    POSITIVE(1.0/1) ---- Expected hash. senti evaluated instead to freemarker.template.SimpleScalar on line 5, column 27 in com/addthis/sentiment/sentidemo.ftl.

the output text before "----" indicates that **senti** is, indeed, a valid java **Sentiment** object. Methods **getSentimentType** and **getScore** are present and working.

So, why am I getting the error?