I say: Yes to name-calling

AS PHYSICAL calling cards take on a digital afterlife, the tactile texture of old-style name cards invokes memories of a receding age in which social and professional identity was established initially through the simple gift of print on paper. I have a collection of such cards.

Some speak of power, such as former American ambassador Kirk Wagar’s otherwise functional card that carries the gold-embossed insignia of a country which occupies the commanding heights of the realms of war and peace. The card depicts through visual understatement the concrete realities of American power.

I remember brief conversations with the ambassador and his excellent wife on occasions such as Black History Month or the breaking of the fast during Ramadan.