Architecture · Moscow · Heritage
Moscow City Hall has announced a new stage in the reconstruction of one of the seven famous Stalinist high-rises, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building on Smolenskaya Square. The façades of the central tower and of the 16-storey wings will be cleaned, the roof repaired and the plinth
Observations · Education · Society · Humour
A professor whose name may not be mentioned reports that, at a university whose name may not be mentioned, doctoral applicants write a special letter on the history of their vulnerability. A special committee, which did not exist ten years ago, awards them points on a certain scale and then
Architecture · Observations · Humour
Other People: Listening to the Lecture and Watching the Lecturer's Facial Expressions and Gestures. Me: Gazing at the breach in the wall of the state drawing room of Princess Serebryakova's mansion. How did you come to be here, my dear, by what fortunes, and how long
NB! · Observations · Rome
The Eternal City of Rome has turned 2777. Beloved for ever ❤️
Archive · Books · Mores · People
In 1972, shortly after his wife's death, Tolkien wrote that he had never called her Lúthien, but that she was the source of the story at the heart of The Silmarillion. Ronald met Edith in 1906 and fell in love, but the orphaned Tolkien's guardian opposed
NB! · Observations · Humour
Books · Observations · Humour
In the closing stanzas of "The Little House in Kolomna", Pushkin makes an unexpected remark on the subject of gender. The jocular ending looks like a parody of the moralising pronouncements that were customary in the conclusions to depictions of the passions in his day, but in our
NB! · Cinema · Observations · Society Pages
The East · Books · Science · Society
At the beginning of a dynasty, when the rulers' demands are modest, taxes are low, and crafts and trade develop freely. As crafts and trade develop, a taste for luxury awakens in the rulers. As the rulers grow accustomed to luxury, they raise taxes. When taxes rise, crafts and
NB! · Geography · Museums · Humour
Archive · Art · Museums · Humour
Hermes in Marble and Hermes in the Flesh. In 1935 the photojournalist Vasilios Tsakirakis took a photograph of a stranger in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The man, who turned out to be a guide named Nikolaos Zafeiropoulos, proved to be uncannily like the statue of Hermes, a copy
Architecture · Art · Museums
Someone says "della Robbia", and you hear "Florentine glazed painted ceramics". This family gave the world a whole galaxy of notable maiolica masters. Vasari, indeed, directly names the eldest of the sculptors of the della Robbia family, Luca, of the fifteenth century, as the inventor of