London · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Queen Victoria, the Biedermeier style and her upbringing at Kensington Palace

Yesterday, at an interior-design lecture, a respected lady informed us with a perfectly straight face that Queen Victoria, being an ethnic German, invented the Biedermeier style upon arriving in England. Decorators and architects are of course under no obligation to be historians and to know such things, so I

NB! · Archive · Observations · People · Humour

This is not quite what I had in mind when I bought a magazine with the cover line MUSCULAR STRONGMAN ALEXANDER KUPRIN

NB! · Observations · Humour

I Hereby Present You with This Stake for Planting Out Cabbage Seedlings; Do with It What You Will

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Doesn't it seem to you that the great Bourvil, the outstanding comic actor and celebrated variety singer who died 50 years ago, bears a striking resemblance to Joseph Brodsky?

London · Observations · Society · People · Humour

I know that many are still mourning the untimely death of the American judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but let us not pass by the darlings still among us, such as Baroness Floella Benjamin, who celebrated her 71st birthday in such a dazzling look…

I know that many are still mourning the untimely death of the American judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but let us not pass by the darlings still among us, such as Baroness Floella Benjamin, who celebrated her 71st birthday in such a dazzling look that, as Andrey Malakhov would say, "

A man with a briefcase leans towards the window of a black London taxi, with speech bubbles about Waterloo.

London · People · Humour

A passenger and a taxi driver talk about Waterloo, the station and the battle

A true story that befell Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, hero of the Second World War, in London, when he climbed into a taxi and said to the driver:. - Waterloo, please. - The railway station? - Of course. For the battle, it is a little late now.

Display board with a photo of a dilapidated building at 7-9 Khokhlovsky Lane and a render of its facades after restoration.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Society · Humour

Muscovites doubt the restoration render for a Khokhlovsky Lane building over discrepancies in business centre volumes

Developers: but we shall make it all beautiful, here is the render. Muscovites: but we cannot take your word for it, for in the planning documentation the volumes of your business centre differ from those you have announced by more than a factor of two.

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Humour

Another representative of the developer, Yaroslav Katsuba, head of the management company, explains what an ornament to the district their splendid building will be

Another representative of the developer, Yaroslav Katsuba, head of the management company, explains what an ornament to the district their splendid building will be. Touching digressions are not avoided: “We managed to find a descendant of Ludwig Knoop, Andrea Knoop. She is a descendant of Knoop through her husband; her

London · Mores · Humour

18th-century palanquin offered on eBay for £9,500, known in England as a sedan chair

eBay delights us with an authentic eighteenth-century sedan chair for £9,500. It is perhaps the closest historical analogue to Uber Black. In England such conveyances became popular from the 1630s and were called sedans, after the French town of Sedan, which specialised in the manufacture of covered litters.

NB! · Society · Humour

Andryukha, we have a falsification of history, possibly the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact!

Andryukha, we have a falsification of history, possibly the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact! To horse!

NB! · Cinema · Observations · People · Pop Culture · Humour

Hugh Grant turned 60 today, and, incidentally, he went into acting after a failed attempt to obtain a doctorate in the history of art

Hugh Grant turned 60 today, and, incidentally, he went into acting after a failed attempt to obtain a doctorate in the history of art. It must be admitted that humanity has lost a very handsome scholar

NB! · Observations · People · Humour

Profile portraits by Yan Tamkovich-Friske on sheets hung on a grid

Jan Tamkovich-Friske. This is the Snub-Nosed One. And I think I recognise her.