Faith · Observations · Society · Humour

A study by a Durham-based community organisation shows that the Church of England has, over the past 10 years, stopped using the word church for its new parishes, preferring words such as community or…

A study by a community organisation based in Durham shows that over the past 10 years the Church of England has stopped using the word church for its new parishes, preferring words such as community or congregation. According to the findings, not one of the churches opened in England in

NB! · Monarchies · Humour

The Situation: The Empress Gets a Facelift

Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

Card with photo of Charles and Camilla skiing in Scotland sent to butler Cyril Dickman

Christmas Card of 2010 with Autographs of Prince Charles and Camilla. Inside the card, which measures 12×8, is mounted a colour photograph of Charles and Camilla skiing in Scotland, inscribed in black ink "To Cyril and Eve from Charles and "Camilla". The recipient, Cyril Dickman, was

NB! · Society · Humour

Anti-Soviet Agitation, If You Please

Black-and-white Gary Larson comic “The Far Side”: a frightened man at a desk in an office, with buildings and windows outside.

Books · Pop Culture · Humour

Anatidaephobia, the fear of ducks, in Gary Larson’s comic “The Far Side”

In 1988 an American artist and cartoonist invented (or merely formulated and set down?) a fear known as anatidaephobia: the dread that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you. The idea first appeared in the comic strip "The Far Side". The name of the condition, anatidaephobia, derives from

NB! · Books · Mores · Humour

Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov, champion of the old style, proposed to use "sharokat" instead of the word billiards, and "sharopikh" instead of the word cue

Books · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The Duke of Cambridge after the Battle of the Alma and Nicholas I's death in a children's book

Even as a child, reading this book, I was struck that after the Battle of the Alma the Duke of Cambridge says: "Another such victory, and England will have no army", and on the very next page the death of Nicholas I is reported. True, five and a

An open book with scorched dark patches on the endpaper and the facing page.

NB! · Books · Society · Humour

Microwaving library books against coronavirus risks igniting their labels

Please do not put library books in the microwave to kill coronavirus. The labels may catch fire. Amen

NB! · Art · Humour

Marco de Angelis

Marco de Angelis. Who ordered the apple?

Cinema · Observations · Humour

Brezhnev on screen as played by Shakurov and Stoyanov, and the image of a feeble old man

Brezhnev as played by Shakurov and Brezhnev as played by Stoyanov are like a bear and Winnie-the-Pooh. The two heroes turned out very different indeed. Both are charming, but Stoyanov's Leonid Ilyich is, all the same, a little too much of a caricature. I have seen

NB! · Observations · Society · Paris · Nature · Humour

Incidentally, Macron never did take the swim in the Seine he promised before the Olympics to prove how clean it is

NB! · Pop Culture · Humour

The maker of Parmesan has become a sponsor of the Olympic silver medallist, the Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa, and the athlete now poses so organically with enormous wheels of cheese