Moscow · Observations · Mores
Do you know Furmanny Lane in Moscow? The Helmholtz Institute of Eye Diseases stands there. Well, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, furmanshchiki was the name given to catchers of stray dogs. The word most probably derives from fura, a cart or wagon, a furmanshchik being one who
NB! · Observations · Mores
A festive little cake to an ancient Roman recipe, with honey and sourdough, in honour of 33,333 subscribers! Thank you all for the good company and your interest, and my mother for a touching moment) I love you all 🤍
Cinema · Museums · Observations
At the centre of "The Weekdays and Holidays of Serafima Glukina" stands a lonely grown woman, Serafima, played by Alisa Freindlich, a museum employee, for those times somewhat not of this world. Today she would be called a representative of the ideas of New Sincerity. A little clumsy,
Cinema · Observations
In our regular Cinema slot today: a Soviet drama of the perestroika period about the loneliness of cultivated people. The Weekdays and Holidays of Serafima Glyukina (1988) is a little-known and far from outstanding film, but I am sure it will appeal to those who value subtle reflections on
Archive · Cinema · Paris · People
In the 1920s the husband of the Danish-born actress Asta Nielsen, then enormously famous, in Russia at any rate, wrote to Alexandr Kamenka, producer at Paris's largest Russian film studio, Albatros, incidentally as… "My name is Grigory Mikhailovich Khmara... My wife is Asta Nielsen... I shall
NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour
Lyudmila Prokofyevna Kalugina in the film "Office Romance" is, by the plot, only 36. Alisa Freindlich was 43 at the time of filming. Do take care of yourselves, stress included, so that at 36 you are not played by a lady of 43
London · Mores · People
A Dapper Dan of his day, this extravagant fellow was the retired sailor Joseph Johnson, known as Black Joe. After he was wounded in the 1810s, he was struck off the books of the merchant navy, but without the right to a pension. In short, the invalid was left without
Books · People · Humour
"I'm not lazy. I'm just very gifted, but instead of being good at music or mathematics, I am skilled at sleeping late" Elizabeth Jane Howard, writer, actress and model
NB! · Art
Knitting Socks. 1912. Work by the Australian artist Grace Cossington Smith
Archive · Books · Mores · People
"My father was senselessly, grievously miserly; he hid even my childish money, given to me for the holidays. However often I begged him to buy me some ribbon, a trifle, he never once gave way. Later, when the revolution came, they confiscated this money-box along with everything else.
Monarchies · Mores · People
The Prussian King Frederick William I recruited the tallest men to be found into his regiment, known as His Majesty's Regiment. The minimum height of the soldiers in this regiment was 1 metre 88 centimetres, which is why the formation became known as the Potsdam Giants. One of
NB! · Monarchies · Humour