The Babushka Pill

My Baba doesn’t understand why I’m not married yet. In fact, Babushkas around the world, from Siberia to Florida, are bewildered by how many of their grandsons are still bachelors. Why are young men and women, they wonder, not getting hitched these days? Why do they delay marriage and family life until they are rotting… Continue reading The Babushka Pill

On The Possible Arabic Etymology Of Selo

There are many words that, despite their origin in different language histories, sound very similar to one another. These are called false cognates¹: For instance, while the Hebrew word חוצפה‬ chutzpah means “impudence,” its Classical Arabic cognate حصافة ḥaṣāfah means “sound judgment.” But not often (perhaps never) do false cognates, with different etymologies, also possess similar meanings. There… Continue reading On The Possible Arabic Etymology Of Selo