Observations · Mores · Society · Paris · Humour
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris with newly sprouted presidential ambitions, signs a crab's shell. She writes: Vive La France! At least it is not a half-eaten cutlet, that is, a steak haché (if you ask a waiter in France for a cutlet, and the word really was
Moscow · Observations · Mores
Dropped into the Turkish bistro Mini Turkish Spot on Tverskaya and was pleasantly surprised to find, by the entrance, some splendid antique chairs by the Thonet Brothers. I even know where they were bought, an excellent choice. There was a time when Thonet bentwood furniture stood in almost every home,
NB! · Archive · Mores
Books · Mores · People
The fundamental principle of the intelligentsia's ethos is intellectual freedom, freedom as a moral category. The only things from which a cultured person is not free are his own conscience and his own thought. Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev, “Letters on the Good and the Beautiful”.
NB! · Archive · Mores
Ladies at the races. Photograph of 1908 🤍
Museums · Science · Mores · New York · Humour
At one party or another one hears it boasted how epic it is, and how it will certainly go down in history. The tale of heavily pomaded guests sewn about on every side with jewels, in whatever numbers they may be presented, is, however, as old as the Proverbs of
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Humour
Princess Maria Annunciata of Liechtenstein and Princess Maria Astrid of Liechtenstein at their weddings, three weeks apart, in the very same pearl and diamond earrings from their mother's wedding:
Books · Mores · Society Pages
Igor Lantsman, exemplary master of ceremonies of the "secret" bar at the Peredelkino Writers' Retreat, celebrates his debut today. The lads have managed to recreate that very atmosphere of old Peredelkino, if it is developed through a Wes Anderson lens. Zakuski, Lagidze Waters, mosaics by the early
NB! · Observations · Mores
Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Paris
Remember the Man in the Iron Mask? Today is the anniversary of the death of the mysterious prisoner who for more than thirty years was hidden in French prisons under various names, in almost complete isolation from human company and constantly masked, on pain of instant death should his face
Archaeology · The East · Mores · People
Everyone, no doubt, remembers Agatha Christie's remark that it is good to be an archaeologist's wife, since the older a woman grows, the more interesting he finds her. Sophia Schliemann would perhaps have added: and besides, one may wear the freshly discovered treasures. In 1874 Sophia,
Observations · Mores · Society · Humour
A good education, by contrast, and the influence of literature and art on parents are attested by such names in their children as Beckett, Sasha, Finnegan, Maira, Beatrix and Aviva. First, forgive me, Tiffany. Second, let us recall what the heroes of the highest-grossing Hollywood films of recent decades