NB! · Observations · Mores
Alexandr Radayev
NB! · Books · Observations · Society
The Monarchess Arrives in Kyiv
The Monarchess has arrived in Kyiv. A note for all those whom feminine forms irritate: in fact they are an organic and perfectly fitting linguistic phenomenon with a long history. From the book "Life and Military Deeds of Generalissimo Prince Italiysky Count Suvorov-Rymniksky"
NB! · Paris · Nature · Humour
Nature has been so cleansed during quarantine that the pigeons have returned to the Vendôme Column
NB! · Art · Humour
Quarantine Lifted
Quarantine lifted. Daniel Hopfer, 1500-1510
Art · Monarchies · Museums · New York · Society
Americans topple the statue of George III in Bowling Green park in Manhattan in 1776
Americans pulling the gilded equestrian statue of King George III from its marble pedestal after the reading of the Declaration of Independence on 6 July 1776 in Bowling Green Park, Manhattan. The lead statue was toppled at the second attempt, broke into pieces, and was melted down for bullets. The
The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Mores
Do you remember the porcelain decanter in the shape of a fish, with little fish-shaped glasses, found in so many Soviet interiors?
Do you remember the porcelain decanter in the shape of a fish, with little fish-shaped glasses, found in so many Soviet interiors? We have such a fish at home too, inherited from my grandmother, and in two colour variations at that; it was mass-produced at the porcelain factory
Architecture · In the Press · Faith · Heritage
BBC shows a reconstruction of 15th-century Wells Cathedral with painted colour and niches for music
The BBC shows how Wells Cathedral looked in the 1400s. Most Gothic buildings, in Britain at least, were once brightly painted, like many of the structures and monuments of the ancient world, which we too are more accustomed to seeing in monochrome, their many colours lost over the years. Besides
Observations · Society · People · Pop Culture
The Legend of Marilyn Monroe Helping Ella Fitzgerald at the Mocambo Club and Its Critics
There is a much-repeated recollection of Ella Fitzgerald's: when she was not being invited to sing in clubs because she was black, Marilyn Monroe offered the manager of the prestigious Mocambo club to come and sit at a table right by the stage, reserved for all the
NB! · Observations · Humour
Greetings to all my Mayanist acquaintances
Greetings to all my Mayanist acquaintances. And no greetings whatever to the Fomenkoites 🙃
NB! · Art · Observations
John Bellany's 1985 self-portrait with his friend, the artist Alan Davie
Self-Portrait of John Bellany with His Friend Alan Davie. 1985. Two famous Scottish artists with strange creatures of the seashore, somehow reminiscent of Roerich and Konenkov
Archive · Moscow · Mores · Nature
Asparagus in Moscow gardens since the 17th century and Russian distrust of lettuce
Asparagus was loved and cultivated in Russia, even in Moscow, from the seventeenth century at the latest. The German Olearius recalls: “There are also kitchen vegetables of every kind, especially asparagus as thick as a finger, such as I myself ate at the house of a certain Dutch merchant, a
NB! · Faith · Observations · People · Humour
Well, well: Nikita Mikhalkov has moved to the Spas television channel
Well, well: Nikita Mikhalkov has moved to the Spas television channel. He tells us how the Emperor Constantine hamstrung his own horses(!), and how the Emperor Diocletian grew cabbages. For which, much thanks