Education · Society · Paris
"Let their impure blood water our furrows": shall it flood our fields and orchards in an instant? Some years ago a public debate flared up in France over the words of the republic's national symbol, the Marseillaise. Should children hear and sing words that preach cruelty,
Art · Observations
A naked youth and two horses. I am not sure that such horses exist at all, but the canvases of the Czech painter Ludvík Vacátko are full of horses of every description and naked youths of every description. The peak of this Czech's career fell in the 1930s,
NB! · Observations · Humour
Coming Up · Moscow · Education
The organisers have announced that this year authors submitted 815 plays to the competition. The plays that passed the selection will be presented from 5 to 12 September in the form of directors' staged readings, followed by wide-ranging discussion, at the 8/3 venue in Moscow.
Geography · Maps
A useful and simple thing: a map of the Roman provinces. Should it happen that school never quite made it clear that Mesopotamia lies just between Armenia and Syria, a little south-east of Cappadocia, while Mauretania is on the opposite side from Rome. As for Sarmatia, marked north-west
Art · People
Pushkin did not know Vermeer. Nor did Gogol. Nor Lermontov. Not even Dostoevsky! For it was only in the 1860s that Vermeer's paintings were rediscovered for the public, by a French critic of socialist convictions, Étienne Joseph Théophile Thoré, who wrote under the pseudonym Willem Bürger (or, in
NB!
Architecture · Moscow · Heritage · Society
This is how Chernikov's house on 2nd Neopalimovsky Lane looks now, although formally the demolition, the result of fraudulent dealings by a band of black-market developers, was not due to begin until the second half of September. The comrade swindlers are in a hurry to destroy an
NB! · Art · Observations · Humour
Govert Flinck, Girl with a Child's Chair. Mid-1600s. But I would say, a girl with a golden beer bottle opener (actually, no!), forgive me. Incidentally, the little one is three years old. And, incidentally, the basket-style handbag is fire too, sending a proper hello to Ulyana
Coming Up · Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture
The new screen adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile" premieres on 23 October 2020. We are promised a stunning reunion of the cult British comedy duo of the 1980s and 1990s, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Not, of course, so epic a pairing as
NB! · Interviews · Cinema · Science · People
Coming Up · Books · Observations
I confess, I have long been awaiting the publication of my book by the publishing house AST, and I am immensely glad that you too have shown an interest in it☺️ At the end of September my tome will at last appear on bookshop shelves: my hardbacked offspring, assembled from