NB! · Archive · London · Monarchies · Humour

Queen Elizabeth so resembles her younger sister, Princess Margaret, that a newspaper, under a joint photograph of the two on their way to the dying Mary of Teck, found it necessary to specify that the queen is in the middle

Art · Books · Science · Nature · Humour

I don't know why, but pineapples are trying to escape from the pages of one of the greatest botanical books of the eighteenth century

The hand-coloured botanical atlas Plantae Selectae by Christoph Jacob Trew, 1771. The engravings were made after drawings by the outstanding botanical draughtsman Georg Dionysius Ehret

Monarchies · Heritage · Mores · Humour

Bust of Peter the Great in Brussels and the legend of the Tsar's 1717 visit to the fountain

Does the bust of Peter the First in Brussels stand on the spot where the Tsar was sick after a drinking bout in April 1717? The bust is said to have been accompanied by a Latin inscription: "On 16 April 1717, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon,

Archive · Monarchies · Humour

Rumyantsev's letter to Peter I on the Swedish fleet alarmed by an embassy galley in 1720

The Swedes were so frightened of the Russian fleet that even a single Russian post galley threw their coastal forces into confusion. Adjutant General Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev describes in a private letter to Peter I an amusing incident that befell him in Sweden in August 1720, when Peter sent him

A smiling woman in a trench coat, headscarf and rubber boots stands with a polka-dot umbrella in the doorway of a building with timber beams.

Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

Woman in a trench coat with a polka-dot umbrella in a doorway, black-and-white photograph

Today's Weather Forecast from Sophia Loren. Raincoats on, umbrellas at the ready ☔️

NB! · Archive · Observations · Humour

I hope I am not the only one whom early 17th-century manuscripts remind of the universe of Wonny and Potachok

NB! · Society · Paris · Humour

The members of the Council of Paris await the next post in Parnassian Mockingbird about the dreadful Mayor Anne Hidalgo

The members of the Council of Paris await the next post in Parnassian Mockingbird about the dreadful Mayor Anne Hidalgo. And so it goes every day, for a mere 4283 euros a month

World map with south at the top and Brazil at the centre, with member countries of BRICS and other groupings shaded in colour.

NB! · Geography · Maps · Observations · Humour

World map with south at the top, published by the Brazilian government

A map of the world according to the government of Brazil. Indeed, why not?

NB! · In the Press · Observations · Science · Humour

Might the journalists of REN TV put their questions about extraterrestrial cities in South America and Tsiolkovsky's acquaintance with the Martians not to me, but to the author of this opus

Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

A Russian poem of the early seventeenth century, that is, of the close of the Time of Troubles, describing the sinful love of a sister for her brother

What is more, the sister has no fear of public censure and is ready to pursue her brother's love in spite of everyone around her. The displeasure of people at such conduct she calls envy. Of all places, here is where I never expected to find a fiery

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

Listen, this many days off every month is frankly not serious

NB! · Faith · Observations · Society · Rome · Humour