Archive · Books · People · Humour

"Nine-tenths of writers will die off, nobody will remember them, such is their specific (weight)

"Nine-tenths of writers will die off, nobody will remember them, such is their specific (weight). Whereas I shall shine through the ages. You have seen to it that Gorky wants for nothing, and Tolstoy receives 36,000 roubles a month. Why am I not provided for in the

Observations · Pop Culture · Nature · Humour

Cindy Crawford in Giorgio Armani's 1992 campaign has two Rassies from «Electronic», the Russian schoolboy sci-fi film, at once

Cindy Crawford in Giorgio Armani's 1992 campaign has two Rassies from «Electronic», the Russian schoolboy sci-fi film, at once. I have always dreamed of having one like that. But then the Airedale terrier, bred in England in the mid-nineteenth century, is not merely handsome: it also

Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Letter in the name of Elizabeth II asking for three hundred dollars for a ticket to Britain

The Taming of the Shrew. What do you think: is that really Elizabeth II writing to say that she is not dead, that Charles has packed her off to a desert island so that he might become king, and that, having no access to the royal funds, she begs me

Globe map with the Arctic highlighted in green and a small blue area in northern Europe circled in red.

Geography · Humour

The Shetland Islands of Scotland lie several degrees farther north than Estonia

Estonia is the northernmost country in the world no part of which lies in the Arctic. Ps unless one counts the Shetland Islands of Scotland, which lie several degrees north of Estonia

NB! · Pop Culture · Humour

Spanish Ships, on Learning That NASA Has Found Gold on Mars

NB! · Humour

The Endgame, if the Pawn Is Not Given a Pastry in Good Time

NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Only now does it become clear that the goose on the Barbour poster of 1999 was precisely the one that lays the golden eggs

NB! · Architecture · Pop Culture · Humour

The Ralph Lauren Store in Chicago Looks Like the American Branch of Hogwarts

Takashi Murakami in a blue flower-patterned suit spreads his arms as colourful rubber sandals fly through the air around him.

NB! · The East · Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has released his own line of footwear

Contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami now makes footwear. Well, evidently the world has been feeling a certain shortage of rubber goods. Owners of Crocs, accordingly, should hasten to change their shoes.

Cinema · Books · Saint Petersburg · Humour

It's Professor Dowell's Head!

It's Professor Dowell's head! A brilliant prop from Leonid Menaker's film, based on the novel by Alexander Belyaev. The living laboratory is on display on the staircase of the main building of Lenfilm

Cinema · Humour

The coachman who will deliver you to Dracula's castle will himself be Dracula

Yet another brilliant incarnation of Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula

Art · Humour

A Mark Rothko Painting in IKEA's Corporate Colours, Sold for $32.5 Million, Has Become the Fourth Most Expensive Western Work of Art Ever Sold in Asia, at Least

A Mark Rothko painting in IKEA's corporate colours, sold for $32.5 million, has become the fourth most expensive Western work of art ever sold in Asia, at least. Which means that this year some very, very rich person will be able to claim a rather substantial tax