From Obit, two memoirs of loss try to answer grief's painful questions. A look at how dead people in 1700s were the first celebrities. In Great Britain it's as easy to open a lap dancing club as a coffee shop. This old house policy: Our government's approach to housing has grown nonsensical: encourage borrowing to keep homes expensive — it's time to rebuild. An interview with Sam Gosling, author of Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. Don't count Drudge out: His demise is overreported once again. Adelle Waldman reads Proust in the park and delights in his spot-on sense of humour — "why didn't anyone tell me", she wonders. The crisis last time: Would democracy control the corporations, Adolf Augustus Berle asked in 1932, or would the corporations control democracy? A review of The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson. More on Planet Google by Randall Stross. An interview with Conor Foley, author of The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War.  There's a strong chance that South America could lose the 21st century, much as it lost the 20th. An article on Congo, pornography for misanthropes. An article on how to write about Africa — don't. Why can't Johnny jump tall buildings? Parents expect way too much from their kids. Where did all the female rappers go?