Archive · Faith · Books · Ethnography

In the 1642/3 edition of Symeon Metaphrastes' "Services and Life of Nicholas the Wonderworker", a curious eighteenth-century note appears in the margin of one page:

"If things go completely badly, pray to dear little Nicholas: he will drop to his knees before Christ and beg forgiveness for you." The main thing to know about the veneration of Saint Nicholas the Pleasant in Russia.

Faith · Books

Blaise Pascal in “Pensées” on the path to faith through restraining the passions

At least try to understand that if reason itself pushes you towards faith, and you are still unable to believe, then the cause of such inability lies in your own passions. Strive to overcome yourself, but not by multiplying proofs of the existence of God; rather, by curbing your passions.

NB! · Archive · Faith

Jews in the German Army on a Frosty Hanukkah, 1916

Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Delighted to Meet You, Caravaggio

Conversing with strangers on the internet reaches a new level

NB! · Archive · Society · Humour

Cholera Stays Away from France for Fear of Catching the Flu

British officers walk on foot by the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, a mounted rider nearby, with crowds and spectators on balconies and walls.

NB! · Faith · The East · People

General Allenby entered Jerusalem on foot through the Jaffa Gate in December 1917

When the British General Allenby accepted the surrender of Jerusalem in December 1917, he entered the city on foot through the Jaffa Gate, saying that he would not ride his horse into a city into which the Lord had ridden on a donkey. Allenby was the first Christian to capture

Art · Observations · Society

The chief thing that the "ugliest fountain in Europe", unveiled for the 150th anniversary of Vienna's water supply, this little "masterpiece" by the art group Gelatin costing 2 million euros, makes one ponder is why one part of society admires it, surely…

Yet what, if not such provocative, even nauseating art, can compel us to reflect? The question is not a new one, but ought art, after all, to be beautiful? What function do such works serve? Beauty awakens feelings familiar to everyone: at the sight of a butterfly fluttering over a

Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography · Humour

Our museum deals with the culture and way of life of the peoples of the world, and therefore does NOT display the freaks, dwarfs, giants and other monsters who amused the grandees of the eighteenth century

The essence of Peter's cabinet of curiosities, in a few sentences on the doors of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera), where the notice hung at least into the 1980s. The museum administration's message is clear enough, but one could still

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People

Napoleon's mother explained her thriftiness by the prospect of having to support kings

Napoleon's mother once flatly refused to live at the Trianon; court life held no interest for her, and she kept fairly much to herself, even declining to attend her son's coronation. Of all her many original traits of character, what most bewildered the courtiers was the

NB! · Observations · Humour

Does It Remind You of Anything?

A man in a dark jacket with a briefcase leans towards the window of a black taxi, with the dialogue shown in speech bubbles.

London · Humour

A passenger and a taxi driver on Waterloo, the station and the battle

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, hero of the Second World War, having got into a taxi in London, said to the driver:. "Waterloo, please." "The railway station?" "I'm afraid it's rather late for the battle."

NB! · Education · Humour

Alexandr Radayev