Faith · Mores · Rome · Humour

Cardinal Raymond Burke in cappa magna and reactions to vestment discouraged since 1969

One of the most conservative bishops in the United States, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, in the traditional sumptuous episcopal vestment, the cappa magna. Most people have seen such attire on Catholic bishops and cardinals only in photographs on the internet. Given the rarity of the moment (this sort of choir

NB! · Humour

A Garlic Pendant, Surely?

Art · Books · Humour

This is how the morning after the first snow might look somewhere in a prefabricated castle on the outskirts of Eastern Biryullia

But this is in fact an illustration by the British artist Angela Barrett for the 1993 Snow White. The Queen lets three drops of blood fall on the snow, having pricked herself while sewing pearls onto a length of brocade, and wishes for a beautiful child with white skin, dark

Close-up of a stone relief in which the hand of one figure holds the hand of another, beside folds of clothing.

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Humour

Persian courtier leads a Greek envoy by the hand to the king in a Persepolis relief

What is high diplomacy? Here, for example, a Persian courtier tenderly holds the hand of a Greek envoy as he escorts him to the royal throne. Detail of a sculpted frieze from Persepolis, Iran, photograph by Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Cinema · Observations · Humour

In episode 6 of «TASS Is Authorised to Announce» there is a very interesting scene in a fashionable European psychiatric hospital, where the wealthy Emma Schanz, played by Olga Volkova (you will surely remember her as the waitress Violetta from «Station f

In Emma's private ward we learn of the Nazi past of her father and husband, along with other compromising particulars. To judge by Mrs Schanz's account, her husband got her hooked on drugs and shut her away in the madhouse, hoping to conceal the truth she

Cinema · Observations · Humour

Costumes from Mankiewicz’s “Cleopatra” bought for the making of “Carry On Cleo”

Many of the costumes from Joseph Mankiewicz's "Cleopatra" were bought for the filming of "Carry On Cleo". So Mark Antony swaggers about in the very same outfits in both films. Who wore them better, Richard Burton or Sid James, may be judged from these

Cinema · Observations · Humour

For everyone who loves Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra of 1963, I recommend comparing her with Amanda Barrie's Cleo in the 1964 comic film "Carry On Cleo", from the long-running Carry On series, made in the wake of the film classic

For everyone who loves Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra of 1963, I recommend comparing her with Amanda Barrie's Cleo in the 1964 comic film "Carry On Cleo", from the long-running Carry On series, made in the wake of the film classic. It must be said

Art · Paris · Pop Culture · Humour

On 24 November Christie's will offer the baton of Marshal Alphonse Juin, made in 1952 by the house of Arthus-Bertrand, and with it a wildly charming trifle: a lipstick case belonging to the marshal's wife, Marie Gabrielle Cécile Bonnefoy, made in the form

On 24 November Christie's will offer the baton of Marshal Alphonse Juin, made in 1952 by the house of Arthus-Bertrand, and with it a wildly charming trifle: a lipstick case belonging to the marshal's wife, Marie Gabrielle Cécile Bonnefoy, made in the form of a

Cinema · Books · Pop Culture · Humour

The 1975 film “Miniatures” and the fates of Zhvanetsky, Kartsev and Ilchenko

The first film made from a script by Zhvanetsky is the 1975 Miniatures with Roman Kartsev and Viktor Ilchenko. It turns out that all three are now dead: Ilchenko was the first to go, at 55, having been tipped for great success on the variety stage. Kartsev died 2 years

NB! · Observations · Humour

I don't know about you, but I adore footnotes like this on Wikipedia

NB! · Archive · Art · People · Humour

Nothing special, just the elderly Henri Matisse painting a picture with a brush on a telescopic handle

NB! · Observations · Society · People · Humour

If things in the States go badly wrong, one can take refuge in a cave like this one in Abington Township, Pennsylvania, where, as a matter of principle, the eminent Anglo-American abolitionist and political activist Benjamin Lay lived for many years in th