People · Pop Culture · Humour
Portrait of Jacques Brel, French poet, singer-songwriter and actor
Humour Is the Healthiest Form of Mindfulness. The French poet, singer-songwriter and actor Jacques Brel
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The East · Society · People
Ali Kemal Bey, ancestor of Boris Johnson and minister in the Ottoman government of 1919
Among the famous forebears of Boris Johnson is Ali Kemal Bey, a Turkish opposition politician of the early twentieth century, journalist and public figure, who for a brief time in 1919 even held a ministerial post in the post-war Ottoman government. As minister, he signed the order for the
NB! · Art · Books · Museums
Portrait of the Sisters Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, Painted by Their Brother Branwell
Art · Mores
The word charlatan changed from meaning a street vendor to meaning a deceiver
Both of these images are called "The Charlatan". The word, derived from the verb "ciarlare", to chatter, to speak in a pompous manner, originally denoted street vendors who drew attention to their wares with colourful patter, wares that were often connected with the prolongation of life,
NB! · Books · Observations
It would indeed be splendid if people stopped confusing a love of reading with a love of acquiring books
Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · People
Lady Pamela Hicks, who at 93, after the death of Elizabeth II, became the oldest of Queen Victoria's descendants, told her daughter India on her podcast how Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice (1885-1969), asked Lloyd George to…
Alice, of course, modestly hinted that if the question of rescuing the unfortunate girls had anything to do with their future maintenance, lodging and provision, she would take all of it upon herself. Naturally, the matter lay quite elsewhere. And she was, of course, told that it was impossible. Princess
Cinema · Observations · Science
Videoton-340 Terminal on Kalugina’s Desk in “Office Romance”, Not an Apple II
Some believe that the machine on Kalugina's desk in "Office Romance" is an Apple II, released in the same year as the film. It is not. For all the considerable resemblance between the two devices, what stands before the director of the statistical office is an
Archive · Art · Observations · Humour
Costume designs for Luigi Manzotti’s ballet “Love” at La Scala, 17 February 1886
Which Fruit or Vegetable Do You Feel Like Today? Costume sketches for the ballet "Amor", presented by Luigi Manzotti at La Scala on 17 February 1886. One would, of course, like to be a salad, but all one manages is a potato
Science · Mores · Humour
Humphry Davy tested nitrous oxide on himself, and the gas became a parlour entertainment
Laughing gas, now widely used in Western medicine as an analgesic and inhalation anaesthetic, first came into use in the 1800s precisely as a substance that provoked fits of merriment when inhaled. The British chemist Sir Humphry Davy, who was investigating the treatment of disease by gases, was the first
NB! · Art · Books
King Lear and Cordelia, Ford Madox Brown, 1854
Books · Moscow · Observations · Society · Humour
A flame war is raging around the Mayakovsky Library's post for Yesenin's birthday
A flame war is raging around the Mayakovsky Library's post for Yesenin's birthday. I see a great many angry comments about the supposedly blasphemous treatment of the poet's legacy. What chiefly outraged the public, as I understand it, was the disclaimer "do not
NB! · Geography · Nature · Ethnography