Daily Bafflements

• The Greeks say, “two watermelons cannot fit under the same armpit” when someone bites off more than they can chew. For example, when Latvian “Mr Euro” Valdis Dombrovskis attempted to argue that the Greek referendum “neither legally nor factually correct,” thus snubbing the very concept of democracy, he was trying to fit two watermelons under one armpit. 

• There were heavy thunderstorms over Germany last night.

• As tech start up entrepreneurs are ordained with a prophetic role in society and VCs make funding decisions based, ostensibly, on faith, Facebook has become more religious, too, at the hands of some Brazilian evangelicals. Facegloria, a “sinless” site that has attracted 100,000 users in its first month, foregoes the “like” button for one saying “Amen,” does not allow swearing or bikini pictures, and hopes to ride the national wave of conversions to evangelism. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about “pro-God PR” in Baffler no. 21. 

• At a course to help Billionaire families thrash out “imponderables” (everyday issues like sibling-rivalry, succession, and choosing a university), conversation soon rotates toward Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century: “As the squeezed middle-classes turn to the bestseller to understand how and why they lost ground to the wealthy, billionaires seek bespoke advice on how to maintain their increased advantage.”