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Last week I learned a curious new verb. According to the OED, to gazump is to make a higher offer for a house than someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller, and thus succeed in acquiring the property. An Urban Dictionary definition is more straight-forward, to buy something already promised to someone else.
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Having and Being Had is a fantastic book to read in your 30s, being both topical and refreshingly honest. Characteristically, Eula Biss rigourously weaves personal narrative with secondary research, in short chapters that make for an easy read, as she grapples with the purchase of her first home. An exemplary chapter below:
Read moreToday is Moral Monday, I hear on the radio. A priest and a rabbi are staging a protest downtown with a giant camel and a giant needle, a reference to Jesus saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” I pause over this, wondering if money can really be so corrupting that just having it is immoral. I have my doubts, but I also have money.