Museums · Ethnography · Humour
Do you know what these ultra-fashionable nineteenth-century boots from the museum of the French département of Ardèche were for? No, not for some forgotten martial art or a frightening provincial pastime, but for a peaceful and useful business: the husking of chestnuts and acorns, which are eaten. Incidentally,
Observations · Humour
People say that history will judge us all. They also say that history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. Rather mutually exclusive claims, wouldn't you say?
Aristocracy · Architecture · Humour
The Colleoni family coat of arms is adorned with three pairs of testicles. The family is said to owe its emblem to one of its founders, Gisalberto Colleoni, who had a distinctive physiological peculiarity, a third testicle, which may have been the result of an orchitis he had suffered. Indeed,
Observations · Society · Paris · Humour
Paris, oh, Paris! Faugh, what a backwater! My eyes are simply popping out of my head at the "improvements" in the La Chapelle quarter. What is that supposed to be called? Inclusivity with solar panels and flowers? In principle, it is hard to say who has done Europe
Archaeology · Observations · Heritage · Humour
In this connection I cannot help recalling my address to an archaeological conference a couple of years ago, when I proposed borrowing the American practice of preserving rock art in situ by planting devilishly thorny plants that would bar vandals from direct access to the surface of the stone. For
Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
An exceedingly rich child in a cradle, a painting by the early Baroque Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana. 1583. That the cradle resembles a tomb has its reverse side: Jesus in the sepulchre, at this time and earlier, is sometimes depicted as if lying in a bed. As for the sumptuous
NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
NB! · Art · Pop Culture · Humour
The four elements: water, fire, earth, air. Northern France, around 1180. Not quite as they are shown in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but still
NB! · Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
NB! · Archive · Observations · Humour
A subscriber informs me in a private message that the letter was written with a broad-nibbed pen, not a pointed one. Having looked through the other comments of the esteemed Matroskin on Dzen, I understand that, contrary to the instructions, he has rather incautiously lapsed into dotage(
Archive · Observations · Society · Humour
Some time ago a letter from 1933, found in an old book, was published on "The Golden Age". In it a certain woman describes the grim state of affairs in Vitebsk and asks the relative to whom the letter is addressed to send her a dozen silver teaspoons.
Archive · New York · People · Humour
F. Engels, a sprightly 33, lives in his father's house and is forever cadging money from him. He sneers at the intimate life of the 23-year-old A. Jacobi, who had spent a year in prison over the sham Cologne Communist Trial, been convicted of "insulting