Coming Up · Art · Observations · Society
On 11 February Sotheby's will once again offer David Hockney's "Splash". The painting is expected to fetch as much as $39 million. In 2006 "Splash" was sold for £2.9 million. One of the three splashes is going under the hammer: there
Books · Society · Paris · People
Théroigne de Méricourt opened schools for women, so that our silly girls might graduate from them as nihilists... There was in the nineteenth century a satirist by the name of Nikolay Shcherbina, by and large an interesting poet and, it seems, a decent man, though not without his rough edges
Art · Monarchies · Museums
The portrait of Napoleon at the recently closed exhibition "Salon 1819" at the Girodet Museum in Montargis, France, is strewn with golden bees, the emblem Napoleon chose as his imperial sign. Of no small importance to Napoleon, of course, was the fact that golden bees resemble the golden
Cinema · Observations
Watched Netflix's "Dracula": three ninety-minute episodes are just the thing for a weekend. It is a pity that each episode is weaker than the last, but it remains an engrossing spectacle: a splendid acting partnership, with the Bond-type looks of the towering Dane Claes
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage
These are the mottoes of one of the most prestigious and respected honours in Europe, the dynastic Order of the Golden Fleece, founded on 10 January 1430 by Philip the Good. In the portrait from the Dijon Museum of Fine Arts, the duke is shown wearing the Order of the
Books · Observations · Society
But. You see, "the trouble is not with the personality of the despot who oppresses his family and everyone around him. He is powerless and insignificant in himself; he can be deceived, removed, thrown into a pit at last... But the point is that with his destruction despotism does
Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Society
Sire, give freedom to the Russian word. Our intellect is cramped, our thought poisons our breast for want of space, it groans in the stocks of the censorship. Give us free speech... we have something to say to the world and to our own people. < > Wash from Russia
Science · Nature
Penicillin is so called because of its appearance: under the microscope, a colony of Penicillium looks like a brush. The name of the genus, Penicillus, comes from the Latin penicillus, "paintbrush". Oddly enough, penicillin is a kinsman of the word penis, from the Latin penis, "tail"
NB! · Archive · Books · Observations · Society
1990: Sberbank of the USSR advertises cashless payment (the advertisement itself is on the back of an Ogonyok poetry collection, incidentally). As you can see, the automatic payment of utility bills was invented long before debit cards became ubiquitous and Sberbank Online was ever thought of.
NB! · Archive · People · Pop Culture · Humour
Igor Stravinsky has knocked back a whisky and is delighted with life. To your health, naturally
Cinema · Pop Culture · Ethnography
Particular attention is drawn to Dumbledore's final expedition with Harry Potter to a cave on a rocky seashore, which turned out in the end to be a quest for a false Horcrux. The most interesting details emerge when one recalls that at that moment Dumbledore already knew of
NB! · Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Ethnography