The Global Game of House: How a Medieval Pawnshop Became the World’s Most Beloved Shackle By the time you finish this sentence, another 47 human beings somewhere on the planet will have signed a mortgage—an elegant term that translates from Old French as “death pledge.” Linguists insist that etymology merely implies “until death,” but after…
The World’s Favorite Chain Letter: A Global Tour of the 30-Year Promise By the time you finish this sentence, three more human beings will have signed a thirty-year IOU in exchange for a set of keys, a mailbox, and the illusion of permanence. We call the ritual a “mortgage,” which sounds civilized—like “mort” (death) plus…
Mamdani: A Name That Travels—Sometimes with a Passport, Sometimes Without By Our Man in Every Terminal Lounge If you say “Mamdani” in a faculty club in New York, you’ll summon a polite nod to Mahmood Mamdani, the Ugandan polymath whose books on colonial ghosts and post-colonial hangover are heavier than the guilt in an IMF…
