The author’s paper “Intermittent turbulence in self-similar cascades: divergence of high moments and dimension of the carrier” [J. Fluid Mech. 62, 331-358 (1974; Zbl 0289.76031)] is generally regarded as one of the forerunners to multifractal theory. But another aspect of this paper, the occurrence of negative dimensions, has not been understood yet, and ultimately did not lead to much output of mathematical theory. In the present paper, the author tries to change this, by describing an easier example of such “anomalies”, termed the two-valued canonical measure. Quoting from the text: “To consider all empty sets as identical used to suffice, but no longer. A new challenge has arisen, to specify ‘how empty’. The answer is the value of a negative [dimension] …”.