Faith · Observations · Society · Paris

Statement on the Paris Olympics opening ceremony and Europe's turning away from Christ

A remark that struck me as interesting, on the macabre concert given on Sunday by Metropolitan Theologos of Serres of the Greek Orthodox Church at the Monastery of Saint Paraskevi:. Unfortunately, we see that for several decades now, in a supposedly Christian Europe, conditions have been created that promote a

Faith · Observations · Society · Paris

The apologies of the Paris Olympics organising committee have somehow gone unnoticed: Anne Descamps, a spokeswoman for the organisers, offered a grudging and, of course, insincere apology for the offence caused by the mockery of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last

"It is clear that there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think, [together with the ceremony's artistic director] Thomas Jolly, we really tried to celebrate the tolerance of society. Looking at the results of the polls that we

Black and white portrait of an elderly bearded man looking down, beside a window.

The East · Observations · Society

Soviet dissident Valery Senderov, who was born in 1945 and died in 2014

In the Graeco-Roman World of Equal Citizens, Victory Is Won by Lofty Speech and Laughter; in the World of Eastern Despotisms, by Silence and Tears. The Soviet dissident Valery Senderov (1945-2014)

NB! · Art · Museums · New York

Oedipus and the Sphinx, Gustave Moreau, Metropolitan Museum

Page of an old French book with rhymed text, with the start of Scene IV at the bottom, where Anne speaks alone.

Books · Monarchies · People

Anna Leopoldovna in Fallot’s 1765 tragedy “The Death of Ivan”

"We shall see time change our misfortunes." "That time is far off, for a perverse world will seek the means to oppose, unceasingly, the happiness of our days." Without hope, without illusions, and with prophetic accuracy, Anna Leopoldovna, condemned to confinement for the rest of her

Archive · Books · Observations

Pyotr Vyazemsky in 1875 on the tact of historians and untimely truth about the dead

The cemetery and the graves, too, must be treated with care and reverence. It is neither fitting nor proper to carry into the churchyard all manner of rumour and gossip, of the kind on which the salons of the living subsist. Voeikov used to say: with the dead there is

Art · People · Pop Culture

Swimming costumes created by Sonia Delaunay in the 1920s, when the bulky bathing dresses that covered the whole body gave way to more compact, close-fitting swimsuits with bare arms and legs

Delaunay's first swimsuits were still made of knitted fabric, wool jersey, but later began to be produced in silk as well. Sonia Delaunay was a French artist, a native of the Poltava Governorate, who grew up in Odessa and Saint Petersburg and left to study in Europe at

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Pop Culture · Humour

Lady Gaga Has Died

Lady Gaga has died. At least, so we must believe if we trust a letter reporting on a Lady Gaga who lived in ancient Babylon

NB! · Aristocracy · Observations · Mores · Pop Culture · Humour

I don't see anything funny here, by the way: the lady might have stood up for the birds that had taken up residence in her wig

I don't see anything funny here, by the way: the lady might have stood up for the birds that had taken up residence in her wig. A pity that in 1775 mercy was not in fashion to the same degree as extravagant coiffures. Still, the aristocrats of the

NB! · Art

A Bear by an Unknown Sixteenth-Century Artist

Observations · Society · People

Two views of Robespierre, dictator of the Terror and defender of France

Since so much attention has been paid to beheading in French history, one might also recall the execution of Robespierre, who mounted the scaffold on the night of 27 to 28 July 1794, 230 years ago. On the one hand, this was the end of the Terror, the death of

Art · Museums · Paris

Official Gold Badge of a Member of the Jury of the 1900 Summer Olympic Games

Artist: Louis Alexandre Bottée. On the tongue of the reverse, the label “Christofle, orfèvres, Paris”.

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