Ghost Mail Weekender

Happy Sunday Voornaam,

We see you, solar owners. That smug smile as your coffee machine whirrs into life. That unforgettable feeling of pressing a button on the TV remote and watching it burst into life. And of course, let's not underestimate how sensational it is to use a hair dryer when you actually want to.
Load shedding is back. Although we can't solve that for you, we can at least try and brighten up the darkness for you with Ghost Mail Weekender.
Quick: think about the last time you opened your internet browser.
Did you look for an answer to a question? Access an online store? Log onto social media?
These days, our relationship with the internet is a lot more transactional than it used to be. We go online, do what we came to do, and leave. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that in principle, but it can make it easy to forget that the early days of the internet were definitely equal parts weird and wonderful - less of a visit to the grocery store and more of a trip through the looking glass, Alice-in-Wonderland style.
Here’s a prime example to illustrate the point. In the mid-90s, a Harvard student named Ethan Mollick created a website called I Can Eat Glass. In Ethan’s view, visitors to foreign countries typically learn common stock phrases in the foreign language such as "where is the library?" which instantly reveal that they are tourists. We’re not sure why the concept of an accent was lost on poor Ethan, but let’s not question his logic too much. Determined to solve this “problem”, Ethan decided that a much better option was for tourists to learn a nonsensical phrase in the local language instead. That way, he reckoned, the tourist would be viewed as an insane native, and treated with dignity and respect.
His phrase of choice was “I can eat glass, it does not hurt me.” The I Can Eat Glass website collected over 150 translations of the phrase into a variety of languages. It also featured a world map that revealed the relevant translation of the phrase in the local language of the area a user clicked on. Sadly no study was ever done that could reveal how many tourists actually ended up using the phrase, or how their native targets responded upon hearing it.
The website garnered media attention in 1996, and when Mollick was interviewed about it, he described The I Can Eat Glass Project as "a challenge to the human spirit" and compared it to the Apollo program and the Panama Canal. Sadly, Mollick’s original site mysteriously vanished around 2004, possibly lost to the sands of early internet history. And we are all poorer for it.
Lance Armstrong didn't go quite as far as eating glass, but he did do some pretty wild things en route to winning multiple Tour de France titles and then having them stripped away from him. As the news broke of men's tennis world number one Jannik Sinner's little run-in with the authorities, Dominique Olivier was reminded of the Lance Armstrong story and the risks taken by people (and businesses) to get to the top. It's a case of get rich or dope tryin' and you can enjoy it here>>>
Read on for proof that style has no age limit, as well as Fast Facts themed around stock phrases when learning languages.
Have fun!

The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn)

Get rich or dope tryin' - business lessons from Lance Armstrong

Granny's got game

TL;DR: In a quiet Zambian village, amid maize fields and mango trees, an unlikely fashion icon has emerged. At the age of 80, Margret Chola is striking poses, turning heads, and proving that style knows no age limit.
Meet Margret Chola, better known to her 225,000 Instagram fans as "Legendary Glamma." At somewhere north of 80 (exact age unknown, since she doesn’t have a birth certificate), she has become the internet’s favourite fashionista, thanks to a bold wardrobe swap with her granddaughter, New York-based stylist Diana Kaumba.
It all started in 2023 when Kaumba visited Zambia to mark the anniversary of her father’s passing. It was a poetic moment, as her father was the man who first sparked her love for fashion with his own impeccable style. As her trip was winding up, Diana started packing away the carefully curated outfits she had brought with her, and realised that she hadn’t had a chance to wear them all. Enter Mbuya (the affectionate Bemba term for “grandmother”), who was about to get the ultimate couture upgrade.
"I thought it would be fun to dress up Mbuya in high fashion and take photos of her in her natural habitat," Kaumba told the BBC in an interview. That natural habitat was a farm in the village of 10 Miles, just outside Lusaka, surrounded by cows, goats, red dust and mango trees.
Cue the Granny Series: fortnightly photos of Granny Margret in dazzling ensembles, perched on elegant wooden chairs or lounging on leather sofas, with a backdrop of exposed brick homes and corrugated iron rooftops. It’s Vogue meets village life, and the internet can’t get enough. Diana had fun with the process, but she had no idea what she was about to unleash. "I was so nervous when I posted that first photo. I left my phone for 10 minutes, and when I came back, there were 1,000 likes," she recalled. "My mind was blown. The comments were flying in, and people were asking for more."
"It surprised me to hear that so many people around the world love me," Granny Margret admitted. "I didn’t know I could make such an impact at this age."
Diana, who has been a stylist since 2012, says her grandmother possesses what all great fashion icons do - courage, grace, and the ability to nail every look. But beyond the style statements, she hopes the Granny Series serves a bigger purpose by proving that older generations still have so much to offer and that the memories we create with them matter.
"Don’t write them off. Love them just the same till the end, because one day, we’ll all be just like them," she said.
The message is clear: fashion fades, but fabulousness is forever.

Dominique's fast facts:
I learnt this language in a textbook

An assortment of facts that will only take you five minutes to read.

“¿Dónde está la biblioteca?” – If you want to instantly reveal that your Spanish skills peaked in primary school, this is the phrase for you.

In Brazil, the English phrase “The book is on the table” is synonymous with beginner coursebooks for learning English.

“I go to school by bus” is a stock English phrase used by Cantonese students in Hong Kong in response to any English question that they don’t understand.

In France, the stock phrase “Where is Brian? Brian is in the kitchen” is associated with beginner-level English. It has become somewhat of a national joke, guaranteeing that anyone who asks the question will get only that response.

“Ayuda, mi hija ha sido secuestrada” or “Help, my daughter has been kidnapped” was a phrase used in Swedish books to learn beginner’s Spanish.

Of course, we would be remiss not to include our own local Afrikaans MVP, “Die hond blaf” to this list.

If you feel like ending your weekend with a jam (and you might need this to maintain your sanity despite Eskom's best efforts), check out this song by Brazilian DJ Alok, who wants us all to know that he is definitely fluent in English. Where is the book, Alok?