NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Mores · Humour

Thanks to an advertisement on Avito, the anecdote about Varvara Alekseyevna Morozova acquires a new ring. After her feckless son Arseny built a florid mansion on Vozdvizhenka, she told him: "Before, I alone knew that you were a fool, but now the whole of

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

Byron's Venetian Apartment Makes One Reconsider the Standards of Airbnb Accommodation

Monarchies · Mores · People

Prince Andrew of Greece after his exile and his son Philip's attitude towards him

Fathers come in all sorts. One of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark's relatives described him as a "deeply unhappy man". Andreas parted from his wife soon after his expulsion from Greece and spent the rest of his life with his mistress in Monte Carlo, where

Observations · Mores · Humour

The smoking cap in the 19th-century male wardrobe and its purpose

Velvet caps like these, with embroidery and rich decoration, were a common item of the male wardrobe in the nineteenth century. To the modern eye, admittedly, they look somewhat odd. But the headgear served no merely decorative purpose: this is the so-called smoking cap, worn in smoking rooms or

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris

Odalisque by François Boucher, 1745, the Louvre

Odalisque by François Boucher, 1745, the Louvre. This is what the mistresses of Louis XV looked like

Mores · Society

After its defeat in the First Greco-Turkish War of 1897, Greece endured great poverty, accompanied by unprecedented usury and a flowering of brigandage

After its defeat in the First Greco-Turkish War of 1897, Greece endured great poverty, accompanied by unprecedented usury and a flowering of brigandage. According to figures for 1899, there were 12,500 registered bandits in the country. The Greek historian Tasos Vournas writes that the government of Georgios Theotokis,

Mores · Pop Culture · Humour

You: Hello, colleagues, today our meeting will be held on Zoom

Your dad in the background:

NB! · Monarchies · Mores · Society · Humour

Peter I Tries to Plant European Ways in God-Guarded Little Mother Russia

Archive · Art · Observations · Mores · Paris · Humour

“La vie parisienne” cover of 1919 with a bouquet, champagne and a cigarette

La vie parisienne 1919. These days this influencer would be holding a bouquet of fir branches and a little glass of champagne with a plastic lid, and as for the clothes, the look is perfectly contemporary. Though sitting on a table is a sin, of course: it is no accident

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

Such a hairstyle is only found on marble busts of the 2nd century AD, or do you suppose the effect of thick locks can be achieved simply by not washing one's hair for a few weeks?

Cinema · Observations · Mores · Humour

Airliner cabin in the Soviet film “Old Khottabych” (1956) and ideas of comfort then and now

Once again, let us compare notions of comfort then and now. Consider the cabin of the aeroplane in the Soviet fantasy film "Old Khottabych" of 1956: the drapery, the double rows, the capacious armchairs with changeable covers, so that one need not fret that the previous occupant of

NB! · Archive · Art · Observations · Mores · Humour

Louis XII's valet de chambre Pierre Sala gives his heart to a daisy in token of his love for Marguerite Buillou

Louis XII's valet de chambre Pierre Sala gives his heart to a daisy in token of his love for Marguerite Buillou. One wonders how he survived such an operation at all.