Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Nothing so adorns a woman of a certain age, short of a solid property portfolio, as a custom bag printed with photos of her grandchildren

What, you ask, is this stylish item at the entrance to the royal palace in Amsterdam, on which I have cast my eye? Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands! And once again she delights us with a chic look: yesterday, before the dinner for the diplomatic corps, the former Queen of

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Weekend assignment: learning from the eighteenth-century Dutch draughtsman Johannes Merken how to react to an encounter with passive-aggressive yappers: we simply keep moving along in our elegant carriage, drawn by a charming little horse

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

Remember Winnie-the-Pooh in Latin?

Remember Winnie-the-Pooh in Latin? It turns out there is an Ancient Greek version too!

Archaeology · Museums · Humour

The situla, a bucket for rituals and for cooling wine at ancient banquets

To consider oneself a continuator of antique culture, one need not know Pindar and Archilochus by heart. In principle, one may simply carouse from morning till night, reclining on a couch amid handsome youths, beauties and the strains of a pipe, provided one is sipping wine chilled in an elegant

Books · Observations · Humour

Hoffmann's tale of a boy who sucked his finger and a modern retelling with a phone

There is a tale by Hoffmann about a boy who kept sucking his thumb despite his mother's prohibitions. However strictly she watched him, the moment she left the house he was putting his little thumb in his mouth again. And then one day an itinerant tailor appeared and

Faith · Mores

Elder Paisios tells of an Athonite monk who struggled with alcohol addiction all his life

There was a monk on Athos who drank constantly, and it caused conflicts with pilgrims. After his death, one of the faithful told Elder Paisios that he was glad of the death of the drinking novice. Father Paisios replied that he had learned of the venerable man's death

Faith · Art · Madrid · Museums

Nicholas of Tolentino in a Painting by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz in the Prado Museum

Nicholas of Tolentino, 1601, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz. Collection of the Prado Museum. The Catholic saint Nicholas of Tolentino (1245-1305) was an Augustinian monk, renowned for his asceticism, and is depicted in the black Augustinian habit with a star on his breast. The bird standing on the dish

Aerial photo of a giant cat-shaped geoglyph on a desert hillside, with a fenced path running alongside it.

NB! · Archaeology · Geography · Nature

A 2,000-year-old geoglyph of a cat found on the Nazca plateau in Peru

This kitty from Peru is 2,000 years old. The giant geoglyph was discovered a few years ago on the famous Nazca plateau, where there are dozens of figures of people, birds, mammals and other objects and shapes

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

After listening for ten minutes to girls discussing their skincare routines

NB! · Archive · Cinema · New York · Pop Culture

Filming Ghostbusters, 1984

Art

Death and Life

Death and Life. Gustav Klimt. The painting exists in two versions, one of 1911 and a later one. The second version is shown in the photograph. It was created under the impression of the gathering storm of the First World War

Moscow · Observations · Society · Pop Culture

Dotage Grows Stronger 💪🏽

Moscow's Tverskoy Court has ruled that a video in which Ksenia Sobchak kisses Anastasia Ivleeva constitutes propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, and has banned its distribution.

Alexandr Radayev