Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
Christmas Card of 2010 with Autographs of Prince Charles and Camilla. Inside the card, which measures 12×8, is mounted a colour photograph of Charles and Camilla skiing in Scotland, inscribed in black ink "To Cyril and Eve from Charles and "Camilla". The recipient, Cyril Dickman, was
Archive · Faith · Art · Books
The Woman Clothed with the Sun, with the Moon under Her Feet, Who Gave Her Child up to Heaven and Fled into the Wilderness from the Seven-Headed Dragon, from a Magnificently Illustrated Netherlandish Apocalypse of the Fifteenth Century. The text cited is the Revelation of St John the Divine,
NB! · Society · Humour
Faith · Heritage · Society
On the night of 14 to 15 August, unknown persons destroyed a historic monument in the northern French town of Le Tréport: a stone cross of the early 17th century. That the act of vandalism took place on the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God,
NB! · Art
NB! · Architecture · The East · Society
NB! · Architecture · Geography · Moscow · Saint Petersburg
The tallest buildings in the world. Russia has all five of the highest skyscrapers in Europe: the Lakhta Centre in Saint Petersburg, and the Federation Tower, the Oko, the Neva Towers and the Mercury City Tower in Moscow
Art
Apollo and Diana Punishing Niobe by Slaying Her Children. Abraham Bloemaert, 1591. National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen. The myth of Niobe and her children is one of the most familiar tragic subjects of classical art. Niobe grew proud of her beautiful and numerous children, twelve or twenty in number, and
Architecture · Faith · Art · Heritage
Hurricane Beryl, which struck Texas last month, has badly damaged the chapel decorated by Mark Rothko. The ceiling and walls of the chapel were flooded, and three of the artist's paintings were damaged. Commissioned by Dominique and John de Menil, philanthropists and art collectors from France, Rothko painted
Archive · Faith · Mores · People
When Stalin visited his aged mother shortly before her death in October 1935, according to her doctor's recollections, they spoke briefly and Stalin tried to explain what it was that he did. "Mother, do you remember our Tsar? I am something like a tsar now," said
Faith · The East · Society
The French Interior Minister has said that, on account of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which Catholics celebrate on 15 August, France is at its highest level of security threat since 24 March, following the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow. Darmanin
Books · Pop Culture · Humour
In 1988 an American artist and cartoonist invented (or merely formulated and set down?) a fear known as anatidaephobia: the dread that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you. The idea first appeared in the comic strip "The Far Side". The name of the condition, anatidaephobia, derives from