Books · London · Mores · Humour

Euphemisms for genitals and sexual intercourse in Shakespeare's works

Shakespeare's texts contain a good many winged phrases, metaphors and euphemisms that are sometimes far from easy to decipher. But once you know the Bard's habitual devices, ticklish sexual particulars are discovered behind the absurd constructions. Thus with the phrase "charged chamber" Shakespeare denoted

Painted dish with a blue pattern: in the centre a fox looks up at a crow on a branch, with bird medallions around the rim.

NB! · Art · Books · Humour

Eighteenth-century dish with Jean de La Fontaine's fable of the crow and the fox

A dish of the eighteenth century. Only this is not the crow and the fox, and Krylov has nothing to do with it: these are Master Raven and Master Fox of Jean de La Fontaine

A green bowl with a white relief of a seated woman and a girl with a jug bending at her feet beneath a drape.

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

Wedgwood porcelain of 1869 and its popularity in Russia since the time of Catherine the Great

Sorrow is sorrow, but one must still wash one's feet. Wedgwood porcelain, 1869. Catherine II was fond of it, which is how it won its fame in Russia and has kept its popularity 250 years on

NB! · Museums · Paris · Humour

Incidentally, a dollhouse has turned up for Poklonskaya too, in the Museum of Art and History in Saint-Denis

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Pop Culture · Humour

If the child of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen marries the child of Jaime and Cersei Lannister, the result will be Charles II of Habsburg

NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour

A Procession of Elderly Ladies at a Cat's Funeral

A procession of elderly ladies at a cat's funeral. As you can see, the women have brought their own cats, still very much alive, to take leave of the departed. And she is being buried in consecrated ground. Rest in peace

NB! · Interviews · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Remember how Maria Zakharova, in her interview with Tatler, gushed and simpered about her dolls' house?

Remember how Maria Zakharova, in her interview with Tatler, gushed and simpered about her dolls' house? Such vulgarity... A Victorian funeral parlour for dolls is another matter entirely. Now that is a hobby!

NB! · Faith · Art · Humour

The Kiss of Peter and Paul, 15th Century

The Kiss of Peter and Paul, 15th century. Male friendship

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Jan Miense Molenaer, 17th century

Jan Miense Molenaer, 17th century. Children PLAYING AND MAKING MERRY. I can imagine what my mother would have done to these children for such games. Not that I am any fonder of tormentors of animals myself 👿

Seated stone statue of a bearded man in a cap with large eyes, his robe covered in cuneiform, with a display case of pottery behind.

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Humour

Statue of Idrimi, King of Alalakh, with an autobiographical inscription on his robe

King Idrimi of Alalakh has been extremely tense for 3,500 years, as though disturbed at an inconvenient moment. And his face seems to say more than the autobiographical text inscribed across his robe

NB! · Faith · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Queen Victoria Presents a Bible to an Ambassador from an East African Country

Queen Victoria presents a Bible to an ambassador from an East African country. I do love English humour

Museums · Ethnography · Humour

Magic trousers of human skin called naubrouki, and the rules for making and passing them on

In Iceland, at least until the seventeenth century, a man eager to grow rich could make himself a pair of magic trousers for the purpose. First, one had to ask a man for permission to make trousers from his skin. When he died, one had to dig up his corpse,