Observations · Education · Humour

Phrase about summer as an example of solecism and the term's origin in the city of Soli

Many people use the expression "how I spent this summer". Honestly, few things in this world put me on edge, but this phrase positively drives me out of my mind. Consider: how (who?) [I] (did what?) [spent] (what?) [this summer]. It is perfectly obvious! "How I spent

Archive · London · Observations · Mores · Humour

An 1860 Ladies' Guide to Beauty offered Englishwomen a curious recipe for reducing the size of the bust

An 1860 Ladies' Guide to Beauty offered Englishwomen a curious recipe for reducing the size of the bust. Ladies who were not troubled by any general plumpness of constitution, yet suffered from an excessive development of the bosom, might resolve the difficulty by means of a surgical operation. The

Aristocracy · Faith · Moscow · Mores · Humour

Prince Yusupov served the Moscow Metropolitan goose instead of fish and lost half his property

Abdul Mirza Yusufov, christened Dmitry and granted the title of Prince Yusupov by Feodor Ioannovich, once decided to play a joke on the Metropolitan of Moscow and served him goose on a fast day in the guise of fish. The Metropolitan was deeply offended and petitioned the Tsar to punish

Miniature of a lion leaning over the rim of a well, with its image visible in the water, while a fox and a hare stand nearby on the grass.

NB! · The East · Art · Books

Reflections in a well in Indian illustrations to a 13th-century Arabic poem

Look at these reflections in the well! Simply mesmerising ❤️ Illustrations to a thirteenth-century Arabic poem, made in India

A long roll wrapped in white paper lies on a wooden floor beside rows of red velvet seats, with the edge of the tapestry visible at one end.

NB! · Art · Museums

Colossal tapestry of Anne of Brittany transported in rolled form

It looks like an enormous cigar, but this is how large canvases are transported. Before you is a colossal tapestry of Anne of Brittany

Black and white X-ray style image of a baby mammoth from the side, showing the ribs, leg bones and trunk.

NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

Mother's milk survived 42,000 years in the stomach of Lyuba, a baby mammoth from Yamal

Little Lyuba of Yamal still has her mother's milk in her tummy, 42,000 years on. It is thought that the one-year-old Lyuba drowned in clay, and that her body was preserved thanks to lactobacilli

Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

"When God decides that the time has come for me to get better, then it will happen, but not before, and they would do well to behave properly so that the time may truly come," by 1909 Empress Alexandra Feodorovna felt…

On the one hand, the position is correct and profound; on the other, after such pronouncements one cannot help thinking: "what if Nicholas really would have been better off with Mathilde?" Ps I rather like the formula in general, and I sometimes blackmail my own parents in the

Old black-and-white photograph of five women and a man standing in a street before a poster reading “Judges are independent and subject only to the law”.

NB! · Archive · Observations · Society · People

Alla Gerber and Law Faculty Classmates by a Poster on the Independence of Judges

The spirit of the age is Alla Gerber and her fellow law students smiling beside a poster that reads "Judges are independent and subject only to the law". The cult of personality had been denounced only recently, and hopes still glimmered...

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

Caricature of 1796 showing how ladies' dress was expected to look in the near future

Ladies' dress as it was expected to look in the near future more than 200 years ago. Well, the future has arrived

NB! · Archive · Faith · Art · Humour

Drawing from a grammatical compendium of Isidore of Seville, 9th century

Drawing from a grammatical compendium of Isidore of Seville, 9th century. One man stabs another with a knife, holding him by the hands, while they kiss. Do not think of that sort of thing; it is most likely Cain and Abel

Engraving captioned “Clairvoyance and Spirit Impression”: above mountains and two cities, spirit faces appear in the clouds with lines running down to the cities.

NB! · Archive · Faith · Science · Humour

Nineteenth-century diagram of communication between cities via the spirit world

This nineteenth-century diagram shows how cities are connected by way of the upper world of spirits. Let me remind you that the telegraph has already been invented.

Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The broken Chain of St Andrew and other incidents at the coronation of Nicholas II

When in Matilda Nicholas II faints during the coronation, the lady sitting next to me exclaimed: "I don't remember such a historical fact" Nor do I, for that matter. If anyone fainted at that coronation, it was the Senior Master of Ceremonies, Saltykov. But that is

Latest