Marble torso of a crouching nude Aphrodite seen from behind against a black background, with a small fragment of a hand on the back.

Art · Museums · Paris · Humour

The Venus of Vienne in the Louvre, without its Cupid, and the Hermitage Venus of Lely

When you have smeared the sun cream unevenly over your back and remain for ever after with a sunburnt handprint on the snow-white marble of your body. The Venus of Vienne, or Bathing Aphrodite, of the 1st-2nd centuries AD, from the collection of the Louvre, with the missing

Architecture · Moscow · Humour

The decor of the house of Hugo Eberling, owner of a joint-stock concrete-works company, in Basmanny Lane be like:

you just open random pages of books on heraldry and semiotics: "oh, that's pretty, let's have it on the façade", "oh, an eagle. Stick that on too", "a mascaron? Is that some sort of dessert?", "Masonic boots? We'

NB! · Observations · Society · Humour

Don't fret that your friends run you down behind your back: try explaining to them that you are better than Britain

Don't fret that your friends run you down behind your back: try explaining to them that you are better than Britain. On the evidence of the annihilated native peoples of North America, say, if nothing else

London · Mores · Pop Culture · Humour

Velvet cap with 88 teeth as the sign of a dentist's profession

Barely 150 years ago, a man in a hat like this could be met on the streets of London, a hat that evidently set Philipp Plein upon the road along which he now speeds without turning aside. But the decoration of this headgear, unlike the designer flourishes of our own

NB! · Books · People · Humour

When it was put to Chesterton that he was not especially gallant, the writer objected: in fact, only this morning on the bus I stood up to give my seat to three ladies at once

Observations · Society · Humour

Avito lists stone and bronze monuments to Lenin for 1.2 and 2.5 million

Don't know where to invest a million or two? For that sort of sum, Avito will sell you a monument to Lenin, for example. In stone, it is a million two hundred thousand; cast in bronze, two million five hundred. Not the most profitable of purchases, admittedly. Even

Old sepia photograph of a bearded man sleeping in bed with his head on a pillow before a striped wall.

NB! · People · Pop Culture · Humour

Claude Debussy asleep in an old photograph for his birthday

Claude Debussy is still asleep: he has second period today. It is his birthday, after all

NB! · Coming Up · Moscow · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

An Unexpected Greeting from the "Field of Miracles" Museum: Leonid Yakubovich Advertises the Premiere of Lavr at the Gorky Moscow Art Theatre

An unexpected greeting from the "Field of Miracles" Museum: Leonid Yakubovich advertises the premiere of Lavr at the Gorky Moscow Art Theatre. Such a touching merger of two forgotten universes that I quite wanted to reread Doronina's letter to Putin.

NB! · New York · Society · Pop Culture · Humour

You Never Know What You Will See at the Met Gala, or Yulia Volkova's First Day at Work in the State Duma

NB! · Pop Culture · Humour

You on the Internet vs You in Life

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour

This Is What People Look Like When They Try to Break into a Private Account Under Fake Names

While Urs Fischer, the Muses of Montparnasse and the exhibition design of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Historical Museum drive the lovers of internet battles out of their minds, the A.S. Pushkin State Museum is quietly hosting "Poets and Muses", and the display is adorned with these

Books · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages · Humour

In Yury Trifonov's immortal novella “The Exchange” there were two design bureaux, No. 2 and No. 3: the Threes played five-minute blitz chess, the Twos played ping-pong

In Yury Trifonov's immortal novella “The Exchange” there were two design bureaux, No. 2 and No. 3: the Threes played five-minute blitz chess, the Twos played ping-pong. Of course, a more obvious example of the passion for “small tennis” is the duels between the institute staff