Archive · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

Orson Welles sipping coffee with Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich in 1945

It might as easily have been Vladlen Davydov, Svetlana Druzhinina and Klara Luchko. And they would have been drinking tea with blackcurrant jam

Art · Observations · Rome · Humour

Runaway horses at Trajan's Column in Rome in a painting by Giacomo van Lint

As Your Literature Teacher Would Say, Here the Bolter Bolted. I love this genre scene by Giacomo van Lint, set by Trajan's Column in Rome. The horses have bolted and cannot now be stopped without a coachman's help. But there are no coachmen on the box.

A man in glasses and a dark suit writes at a desk, with a portrait on the wall behind him and a lamp with a pleated shade and painted vase at right.

NB! · Archive · People · Humour

Shostakovich at his desk in a black-and-white photograph

Shostakovich at work. And you, no shirking

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Humour

As You Will Have Gathered from the Title of the Play, the Hero Stayed in Moscow for More Than Three Days

Observations · Humour

Good Morning

If at all possible, refrain from coffee, or at least from a storm in a teacup

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

With the arrival of a new Kindle with a colour display, I cannot help wondering how badly it will glitch and freeze, if the plain black-and-white one starts misbehaving at roughly the three-hundredth book?

Mores · Society · People · Humour

Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever, a historian devoted to Rome and Roman symbols

The mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, is a historian by training, and although he specialised in the Flemish national movement and salutes incorrectly, outside academic life he adores Rome and all things Roman. In the photograph he celebrates his election victory with Roman regalia: a standard with a golden

Observations · Society · People · Humour

The Prime Minister of Singapore in the cabin of an economy-class aircraft, travelling on official business by low-cost carrier

The Prime Minister of Singapore in the cabin of an economy-class aircraft, travelling on official business by low-cost carrier. On the one hand, we understand that Lawrence Wong belongs to those politicians who consider themselves representatives of the people rather than rulers of the people. On the other

NB! · Humour

You Have Drawn Climatic Camilla, Who Foretells Foul Weather for the Coming Week

Screenshot of an Avito listing showing the cover of book 4 of the comic “Igor Grom. Loki's Method” with the caption “Price not specified”.

NB! · Books · Pop Culture · Humour

In Tyumen, an Avito listing offers an apartment in exchange for volume 4 of the Igor Grom comic

One-bedroom flat for sale or exchange for Volume 4 of the comic: Tyumen's biggest fan of Major Grom discovered. Or else a very witty piece of work by the marketers

NB! · Society · Nature · Humour

The Only Dwelling a Respectable Opossum Can Afford in Present Economic Conditions

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

Whenever I see sedan chairs in museums, that European variety of the palanquin, a status symbol of urban transport in the form of an elegant little cabin with a seat, carried on two poles, I always recall the cartoon of the crash test for a sedan

Whenever I see sedan chairs in museums, that European variety of the palanquin, a status symbol of urban transport in the form of an elegant little cabin with a seat, carried on two poles, I always recall the cartoon of the crash test for a sedan. Such is my dusty