Books · Moscow · Museums · Mores · Humour
When you hear of a ‘new’ format of portable smoking systems, remember this German smoking pipe of the mid-19th century, made of porcelain, wood, metal and textile. The piece is from the collection of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve. Something of the kind may well have been puffed by the
Cinema · Mores · People · Pop Culture
Most likely, Loretta Young gave birth shortly before filming began on The Crusades. The story of her daughter became one of the more mysterious biographies among the children of Hollywood celebrities, and came to light only shortly before Loretta's death in 2000 at the age of 87. In
Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People
Hollywood diva Loretta Young as the English queen Berengaria of Navarre in the 1935 film The Crusaders. Berengaria is the only English queen who never set foot on English soil. It is held, however, that she may after all have visited England, but only after the death of her husband,
NB! · The East · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
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Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
On Josephine's birthday, let us recall the hilariously funny American melodrama "Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story", with a young Armand Assante as the Emperor. It is a miniseries, so it will see you through several evenings. Do take note of the costumes, hairstyles and make-
The East · Books · Science · Mores · Ethnography
Modern medicine holds that birth inside the amniotic sac, or caul, occurs in roughly one case in eighty thousand, which is why such deliveries tend to become a significant news item for specialist journalists. In former times, children born in such a bubble, with the waters not yet broken, were
NB! · Archive · Mores · People · Humour
Mrs Johanna O'Connor, a peasant woman from a mountain hamlet in Ireland, at the age of 110: "I still smoke my pipe and do not think a person ought to be without a drop of punch, wine or stout... My secret of longevity? There is no secret,
Observations · Mores · Humour
When the epidemic began, I was greatly puzzled by the vast stream of information about the need to wash one's hands, until I began to look closely at photographs on social media in which my acquaintances in Europe and the United States pad about their homes in outdoor
NB! · Art · London · Observations · Mores · Humour
The picture is, of course, about fashionable parasols in London in the 1790s, but the hats here are no less remarkable. I should like to self-isolate beneath an exceedingly wide-brimmed hat in the style of a galero
NB! · Observations · Mores
The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Mores
Do you remember the porcelain decanter in the shape of a fish, with little fish-shaped glasses, found in so many Soviet interiors? We have such a fish at home too, inherited from my grandmother, and in two colour variations at that; it was mass-produced at the porcelain factory