Books · Observations

Inside Ourselves We Are All the Same Age

Gertrude Stein

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

The bookshelf after you have bought another two thousand books without yet finishing The Wizard of the Emerald City

NB! · Art

A magnificent five-string lyre harp in walnut, richly carved and surmounted by a dragon, part of a decorative suite of the early nineteenth century

Black-and-white engraved portrait of a young woman with long dark ringlets and a lace shawl over her shoulders.

Archive · Books · Humour

Letter from Gustave Flaubert addressed to Louise Colet

"Pull as many faces as you like behind my back; my backside is watching you" Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet

A cutaway drawn plan of the underground home Bag End in Hobbiton, showing the pantry, dining room and hall, signed by Emil Jensen.

NB! · Architecture · Cinema · Humour

Bilbo Baggins's home Bag End in Hobbiton on a plan by Emil Jensen

The Shire? Baggins? Quite some pile Old Bilbo has got himself

Faith · Monarchies · Observations · Rome

Pope Francis at the House of Saint Martha and the possible reversal of his innovations under Leo XIV

Italian and Spanish media confirm that Pope Leo XIV has decided to restore the papal residence in the Apostolic Palace. I remind you that Pope Francis lived and died in the Domus Sanctae Marthae (Casa Santa Marta), an annexe to St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, intended for

Diagram in three rows showing a woman with a black bob draping a rectangular sheet of cloth in three different ways, labelled a, b and c.

NB! · Archaeology · Ethnography · Humour

Three ways to drape a rectangular piece of cloth in ancient Egyptian dress

3 ways to embrace ancient Egyptian fashion with an ordinary bedsheet. Don't mention it

Faith · Observations · Society · Rome

Many Russian media have misrendered the surname Prevost, reading it as French, no doubt out of an idea of the pontiff's French background, but since the Pope is, after all, an American, and there is nothing French about him…

"Prévost" would be correct had he come from a French-speaking colony. In his own country he was Prevost, and this seemingly suited him well enough. At any rate, one will be able to put the question to him in person and find out whether he, in honouring

NB! · Faith · Society · People · Rome

Robert Francis Prevost, Now Leo XIV, the First Pope of Mixed Race

Robert Francis Prevost, now Leo XIV, is the first Pope of mixed race. His paternal ancestors were French and Italian; on his mother's side they were French, Spanish, Louisiana Creole, Afro-Haitian and African

Archive · The East · Art · Society

Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt lead the vanquished Hitler, with snakes growing from his shoulders, in the wake of Kaveh, the mythical blacksmith who rose against the tyrant Zahhak

Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt lead the vanquished Hitler, with snakes growing from his shoulders, in the wake of Kaveh, the mythical blacksmith who rose against the tyrant Zahhak. Goebbels is tied to the horse's tail. During the Second World War, Iran saw a series of propaganda posters based

Silhouettes of a uniformed man in a peaked cap and a child with a raised hand against festive fireworks and Kremlin towers with stars.

Archive · Art · Society

Miron Lukyanov’s poster for the 9 May holiday, created in 1989

Happy Victory Day! Poster by Miron Lukyanov, “9 May is Victory Day!”, 1989

NB! · Observations · Society

Alexandr Radayev