I have commented about the awesomeness of visiting cards earlier. Today I found out that I have actually been underestimating their power. This was a footnote in The Berlin-Baghdad Express by Sean McMeekin:
The origin of Oppenheim’s title of Baron (‘Freiherr’ in German) remains unclear, aside from the fact that he put it on his own calling card. It took some time, but eventually the moniker stuck. After his name burst into the headlines in 1906, he was generally referred to both inside and outside Germany as ‘Baron Oppenheim’.
Wow. Evidently if you keep something on your visiting card long enough, it becomes true.
You know what this means, don’t you? If only Kiruba had stayed the course, he would actually be a Wikimedia director by now.
About the book: I’m three chapters in so far. It has Ottoman Empire politics, German railway engineering, and Orientalists. So it is awesome and badass.
I had a nickname I really didn’t like back in engg. coll. So I put Chan on my tsepak jersey in IIMB and it has stuck, ever since!