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Archive · Art · Society · Humour
The bureaucrat kindled the fire of indifference
A poster of the Perestroika era
NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour
Should you feel blue, simply reflect that 95% of the world's chaga reserves lie in Russia
Books · Observations · Society · Humour
But the most infamous trick of these voivodes and their subordinates was that, for the sake of money, they falsely accused the people, or encouraged frivolous suits against men, and then sought by threats to extort money from them absurdly: they ordered t
Thomas Salmon and Matthias van Goch relay the observation of John Perry, an English engineer in the service of Peter I, on how the Russian voivodes grew so very rich during their brief terms of office. "The Modern History, or the Present State of ... Russia", 1735. And, you
Art · London · Monarchies · Museums · Humour
The sinister portrait of Charles III by Jonathan Yeo, unveiled in 2024, in which the king's figure drowned in the crimson haze of the underworld, has made it into Buckingham Palace after all
The sinister portrait of Charles III by Jonathan Yeo, unveiled in 2024, in which the king's figure drowned in the crimson haze of the underworld, has made it into Buckingham Palace after all. The Royal Collection has accepted as a gift a large preparatory study for that portrait,
Art · Society · Humour
In Baltimore, a Pedestal Left Empty for Exactly Six Years Since Columbus Was Taken Down Has Finally Found a New Occupant
In Baltimore, the pedestal that has stood empty for exactly six years, ever since the monument to Columbus was removed from it, has finally acquired a new occupant. True, this Renaissance lasted only a few minutes, and the self-proclaimed David was led away by the police. This time, dropped
Archive · Art · Mores · Paris · Humour
A Humorous Design for a Summer Theatre Hall for Gentlemen, Where One Might Sit Half-Undressed: The Heat of 1861
Drawing by Alfred Grévin (1827-1892) for the cover of issue 281 of the Petit Journal pour Rire. A simple design for a summer hall for gentlemen, submitted to the gentlemen among the theatre directors, or even to the gentlemen of the commission for the creation of a new opera
Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
Missed the concert at which an elderly lady stood and shouted into a microphone
Missed the concert at which an elderly lady stood and shouted into a microphone. On the other hand, I have already been on the Tube this week
NB! · Moscow · Observations · Society · Humour
While Nobody Was Looking, the Toilers of Moscow's Municipal Budgetary Institutions from Central Asia Have Begun to Be Replaced by Specialists from Sunny Hindustan
While nobody was looking, the toilers of Moscow's municipal budgetary institutions (the GBU) from Central Asia have begun to be replaced by specialists from sunny Hindustan. The new ethnogeopolitical realities of our courtyard
NB! · Society · Humour
Macron Was Not Prepared for the Swedes to Take a Baguette Hostage
Science · Humour
The word "banderole" was borrowed from French
The word "banderole" was borrowed from French. Banderole, "pennant, little ribbon", goes back to the Italian banderuola, "little flag". Bandera comes from the Italian word bandiera, "banner, flag". Banderuola and bandiera go back to the Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to
Museums · Observations · Paris · Humour
At the Louvre, as usual, everything is askew
At the Louvre, as usual, everything is askew. The whole of the second floor is closed, as is 75% of the Department of Decorative Arts, the recently restored Richelieu wing, the art of Islam and the Roman antiquities. Do not ask whether 32 euros might be spent more ingeniously than