Monarchies · Mores · People · Pop Culture
Queen Elizabeth II always had personal chauffeurs, but she adored driving herself, especially in a Range Rover, the British off-roader that became her signature car. At the end of August one of her vehicles will go under the hammer at the Silverstone Festival auction: a 2006 model with 120,
Cinema · Books · Mores · Pop Culture
Gaslighting, the familiar term for a form of psychological abuse, takes its name from the play “Gas Light”. The role in the 1944 film adaptation brought Angela Lansbury her first fame and her first Oscar nomination. She played the maid Nancy, who helped Mr Gregory Anton drive his wife, played
Architecture · Heritage · Mores · People · Rome
“I am not sure that time passes as the calendar or the clock describes it. 800 years of these walls is, for me, the present. That is why I am not nostalgic. I never truly believe that those who are no longer alive have gone. Everyone leaves a deep imprint
Archive · Mores · Nature
A ball on the stump of a giant sequoia. In the largest living specimens of Sequoiadendron giganteum, the trunk reaches 10 metres in diameter. The oldest giant sequoias growing today are 3,200 to 3,500 years old.
Monarchies · Mores · People
If you do not know how to begin your day, recall that the Emperor of All Russia ruled the largest state in the world and still kept himself in splendid physical shape
In the Press · Mores · People · Humour
The philosopher Slavoj Žižek writes on Substack about his eating habits:. What I hate most of all is the politically correct politicisation of food. Recently in Germany I had a conflict with friends who wanted to go to a Lebanese place, but I hate hummus, which reminds me of the
Art · Monarchies · Mores
Louis XIV Plays His Favourite Game, Billiards, 1694. Note the cue, which resembles a little mallet. Look at the billiard table. First, it has no pockets. Second, a post and an arch stand upon it. What are they? This is a variety popular in France: fortification billiards. For this game
Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour
In 1977 the self-proclaimed Emperor of Central Africa, the dictator Bokassa I, presented the guests of honour at his coronation with gilded replicas of his own throne. Paris supported the ruler of the former French colony, who in the tenth year of his rule had decided to turn from
NB! · Books · Mores · Humour
Vegetarian coffee. From the book “Kitchen on a Primus Stove”, 1927
Archive · Books · Mores · Society
The law protects only the life and property of the boyars. The serf, regarded as a ploughing machine, has no need of laws; a plough may spend the night in the street, in the snow, in the rain. What else is a serf in Russia but a wandering plough? For
NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour
Comrades, why are you crowding into a queue when the ticket terminals are perfectly free? A strange habit, all the same
Observations · Mores · Society · Humour
“He came in a suit and did not look like a madman”. a brief but pithy remark on the social importance of observing the dress code