NB! · Art · Mores · Society · Humour

Who Said That Propaganda for a Higher Birth Rate Can't Be Sweet?

Who said that propaganda for a higher birth rate can't be sweet? This touching poster of 1969 by V. Stepanov, for instance, inspires nothing but warm feelings

NB! · Observations · Humour

And Yoga Is Harder Than It Looks

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Humour

Catherine II and Elizabeth II: Whose Mirror Portrait Turned Out Better?

NB! · Architecture · Humour

There is an old joke about the Parthenon: when they finally finish building it, it will look magnificent!

A soldier in a red tunic lies on the ground in front of the ranks while a rider in red uniform passes on a dark horse.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Soldier faints at a parade attended by Elizabeth II in a 1970 photograph

A soldier faints during a parade attended by Elizabeth II. This famous shot of 1970 could, in principle, quite easily have served as the cover of a British punk rock band's record

NB! · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

When 17-year-old Prince Charles was flying to study in Australia, a girl he had never met, Star Fluke by name, kissed him at Hawaii airport and said her dream of kissing a future king had come true

NB! · Art · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Many years have passed, yet I still cannot fathom how it came about that in François Boucher's painting two people emerged from the sea on the back of a single fellow, while on James Cameron's enormous wooden door there was no room for two?

NB! · Books · People · Humour

Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Our Answer to Buddy Winkle

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Let us consider the superfluous man not through the Byronic hero of Romanticism, but through the fire-safety sensor in Queen Wilhelmina's salon at Soestdijk Palace: it is, of course, necessary, but to look appropriate, it…

Observations · Society · People · Humour

General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, father of the writer, and claims that Napoleon was Black

Yesterday I read, in the writings of a certain expert, that Napoleon was a black African, since he was born in Corsica. I do not know whom such insinuations serve, but if one genuinely wishes to find black men in the ranks of Napoleon's army, one should look

Museums · Observations · People · Rome · Humour

Byron's Carnival Mask of February 1820 Kept in the John Keats Museum in Rome

Can you picture this horror in place of the face of so soulful and refined a Byron? The poet wore this frightening mask to a carnival in February 1820. It once had hair and a beard, which have not survived to our day, though they probably lent some small adornment

NB! · People · Humour