Hollow inside baked bread in folk omens: a relative's death or an imminent pregnancy

A note for the housewife: if a large hollow forms inside a loaf during baking, it may foretell the death of one of your nearest and dearest. Happily, folk omens are not ultimatums, and besides death they promise, for instance, an early pregnancy. The principle is clear enough: empty space is not granted for nothing, and something will have to fill it. In a mind inclined to the apocalyptic, such lacunae are filled with the dead; the optimistic temper sees not a gaping void but room for new life.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Hollow inside baked bread in folk omens: a relative's death or an imminent pregnancy

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s