Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Saint Petersburg
For the 1894 fancy-dress ball at Count Sheremetev's, the Tsarevich Nicholas came as a falconer. In his diary the heir wrote: "In the evening I put on the kaftan of a 'falconer' from the time of Alexei Mikhailovich; Xenia dressed as a boyar'
Science · Palaeontology · Nature
In these pots before you is narrow-leaved catchfly, a plant of the pink family (Caryophyllaceae) common in tundra conditions. What is so special about these unprepossessing flowers? If nothing else, that they were grown from the tissues of a plant 38,000 years old, preserved in the permafrost. As
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NB! · Observations
Faith · The East · People · Rome
On 13 May 1981, as the Pope's motorcade moved across St Peter's Square and John Paul II greeted the pilgrims, six shots rang out. A Turkish extremist standing in one of the front rows wounded the Pope in the abdomen and the hand: by a miracle,
NB! · Art · Observations · Humour
The mood for the whole day, if you woke at 7 a.m. Sleep. Albert Moore
NB! · Pop Culture · Humour
Moscow · Museums · Society
Alcohol has been permitted for sale in Moscow's non-federal museums and concert halls. The sale of alcohol in cultural institutions was already under discussion in 2019. Irina Antonova was still alive then, and she spoke out categorically against it: “This initiative strikes me as incomprehensible, especially in
NB! · Humour
London · Monarchies · Mores · Humour
If you need to get from one castle to another, deliver a basket of pies to Grandmamma, or attend a charity event in aid of widowed knitters in the depths of the countryside, the helicopter really is the finest means of transport. A helicopter is most convenient for setting down
London · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
Every ten years a gala luncheon is given in honour of Elizabeth II for heads of state: in 2002 with the leaders of Europe, in 2012 with the rulers of the world. And in any company, of course, there will turn up certain characters who plant themselves with their shanks
Faith · People
Bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Patriarch Neofit has been admitted to hospital with a broken left hip. For a man of 76, Neofit's health is not of the best: he was hospitalised for a week last year and for a month in 2018, and in 2011 he