Art · Observations · Nature · Humour
I cannot tell whether this kitten is on the verge of a nervous breakdown or is a hideous demon from a grimoire
Children and a Mousetrap. Dominicus van Tol, 1660s.
Alexandr Radayev
Art · Monarchies · Mores · Paris
Marie de' Medici and the child Louis XIII in an engraving, his harsh upbringing and her exile
Marie de' Medici and her young son, King Louis XIII of France. She arrived in Paris immediately after the murder of Henry IV and took power, which is to say that she, of course, gained more from his death than anyone else. Louis in this engraving may be 8
Books · Science · People · Nature
Cholera, the volcanic eruptions of the 1810s and Pushkin’s Boldino Autumn
Strange as it may seem, Pushkin's Boldino Autumn, so often recalled of late in connection with coronavirus isolation, may also be linked to the volcanic eruptions of the 1810s, which had such a profound effect on the Earth's climate. It is believed that the gigantic cloud
Geography · Science · Nature
The 1816 Year Without a Summer, the Tambora eruption and a theory about the bicycle
Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death, or The Year Without a Summer: such is the name under which 1816 entered history, when snow fell every month in Western Europe and parts of the USA, temperatures stayed at winter levels, and rain and hail never ceased. A century later, climatologists explained
NB! · Observations
We have not, all things considered, strayed so very far from such affairs
Cinema · Humour
Pure Downton Abbey stills
https://t.me/cucumberdeath/2117
Art · Monarchies · Paris · People
Ravaillac's Assassination of Henry IV in Paris on 14 May 1610 and His Execution
The regicide François Ravaillac is shown in an engraving with the very dagger with which he took the life of King Henri IV in two blows, having leapt onto the step of his carriage, which had halted on the rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris on 14 May 1610. Ravaillac
NB! · Archive · Mores · Nature · Humour
The Durham ox, which died in 1807 weighing over 1,200 kg, appeared on plates
This Durham ox won posthumous fame, and a place on plates and postcards, merely by weighing a great deal. At the time of his death in 1807 he weighed over 1,200 kg
Monarchies · People
Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Duke of Värmland, was born on 13 May 1979
Today the most handsome prince in Europe, Carl Philip of Sweden, turns 41. On the day of his birth, 13 May 1979, a salute of 101 guns was fired in Stockholm. The second child of King Carl XVI Gustaf, he studied in the USA, served in the navy and took
Art · Museums · New York · People
Ralph Cahoon, a furniture decorator who became a painter of mermaids for wealthy New York homes
The Massachusetts artist Ralph Cahoon (1910-1982), an American of Dutch descent, began as a furniture decorator but fairly soon found his subject: folk motifs featuring mermaids. With the help of one of his clients, the celebrated philanthropist and patron of the arts Joan Whitney, Cahoon introduced his work to
The East · Science · Ethnography
The word alcohol derives from the Arabic name for kohl, the ancient eye cosmetic
Kohl, the eye-liner pencil known in the East since the 4th millennium BC, etymologically precedes the word alcohol, borrowed by Europeans from the Arab world. Alcohol derives from the Arabic al-kuħl, meaning "made of antimony", or, literally, of kohl. The word entered Arabic from Assyro-Babylonian,
Archive · Interviews · Society · People
Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, in conversation with Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov about the war, voices an interesting thought about a people that calls itself great, yet for some reason lets itself be led on a leash like a calf, chooses a criminal government f
Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, in conversation with Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov about the war, voices an interesting thought about a people that calls itself great, yet for some reason lets itself be led on a leash like a calf, chooses a criminal government for itself and condemns itself to a beggarly existence.