Number of words: 3,331 In 2007, Gary Rivlin wrote a New York Times feature profile of highly successful people in Silicon Valley. One of them, Hal Steger, lived with his wife in a million-dollar house overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Their net worth was about $3.5 million. Assuming a reasonable return of 5 percent, Steger and his wife were … Read more

Number of words: 161 In conversation after supper he told us jokingly that he much admired the idea of Sancho Panza, who, when it was proposed to give him a government, requested it be a government of blacks, as then, if you could not agree with this people, he might sell them. One of his … Read more

Number of words: 1,079 China’s economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of individuals out of poverty. The resulting positive impacts on the material well-being of Chinese citizens are abundantly evident. Beijing’s seven ring roads, Shanghai’s sparkling skyline, and Guangzhou’s multitude of export factories none of which existed in 1980are testimony to China’s success. What … Read more

Number of words: 41 A mild and forgiving temperament must have been to the liking of the British, until Mahatma Gandhi devised a form of protest that capitalized on this very passivity. The genius of Gandhi was that the understood why his people would support.

Number of words: 85 According to lore, the sage Bhrigu was concerned that notwithstanding their knowledge of Vedas and the Puranas, economic prosperity eluded Brahmins. He therefore embarked on a long penance to propitiate the goddess of wealth and good fortune, Lakshmi. The goddess was pleased by his devotions. She appeared before him in a … Read more

Number of words: 182 Part of the solution to this linguistic puzzle is that expletives like bloody and fucking arose from the process by which one taboo word substitutes for another despite their having nothing else in common (the process that allowed where in hell to beget Where the fuck, and Holy mary to inspire … Read more

Number of words: 126 Sothesyntax of the verbs of sex uncovers two very different mental models of sexuality. The first is reminiscent of sex–education curricula, marriage manuals, and other sanctioned views: Sex is joint activity, details unspecified, which is mutually engaged in by two equal partners. The second is a darker view, somewhere between mammalian … Read more

Number of words: 474 Sex has high stakes, including exploitation, disease, illegitimacy, incest, jealousy, spousal abuse, cuckoldry, desertion, feuding, child abuse, and rape. These hazards have been around for a long time and have left their mark on our customs and our emotions. Thoughts about sex are likely to be fraught, and not entertained lightly. … Read more