A blonde doll in a red dress and a coat with a black fluffy collar stands on blue fabric. In front of her lie a pair of pink shoes and a brown wig.

NB!

Vintage fashion doll in a red dress and coat with a fur collar

Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

Barbie's Friend Midge, 1962 Edition

Barbie's friend Midge, 1962 edition. Midge was conceived as a less flamboyant version of Barbie, with lighter make-up, less showy clothes and the looks of a woman not quite so grown-up as Barbie. The outcome is what you see here: a dame with pursed lips and

NB! · Humour

Isn't It a Little Early for You to Be Skiing, Young Man?

NB! · Geography · Moscow · Nature

Moscow Weather in the Hottest Summer in the History of Observations

NB! · Observations · Education

A small private joy: no school or university to get up for today

NB! · Faith · Observations

The Uniform of the Vatican's Swiss Guard in the Seventeenth and Twenty-First Centuries

Architecture · Art · Cinema · London · Humour

Sculptor Alexander Sederbach created the figure of Diogenes for Lacock Abbey in 1755

Does the statue of Gandalf in an English abbey ring no bells? In fact, this is how in 1755 the sculptor Alexander Cederbach envisaged the figure of Diogenes of Sinope for the adornment of Lacock Abbey in the county of Wiltshire in England. The lantern in the sage's

Archaeology · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Victoria Calvatone, an ancient Roman bronze in the Hermitage, and its 19th century restoration

The Calvatone Victory. Ancient Roman statue, 2nd century AD. The Hermitage. The inscription VICTORIAE AUG / ANTONINI ET VERI / MARCUS SATRIUS MAIOR records the victory of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus over the barbarians. Until 2019 the sculpture was not exhibited; until the 2010s it lay in storage altogether

Faith · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

When They Ask What I Do with All These Books

Engravings by Albrecht Dürer, 1498, and Vasily Koren, 1690s. Saint John eating the book. Revelation 10:9 “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the

An elephant walks along a road beside a metal guardrail, with greenery and houses behind it, in a BBC News screenshot.

NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour

BBC News reports an elephant on the loose near a supermarket in southern Italy

Are elephants roaming Italy again? All we needed was another Punic War

Portrait of a long-haired youth in a wreath of vine leaves and grapes against a sunset sky and hills.

Art

Work by Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon from 1867, a youth in a wreath of vine leaves

Bacchus. Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon, 1867

A small white house with a red door stands in a lit clearing amid dark forest, reached by a winding path.

Art

Illustration by the Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca showing a house in a forest

Dream House. The Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca

Alexandr Radayev