NB! · Art · Mores · People · Humour

When Peggy Guggenheim was asked how many husbands she had had, she replied: “My own, or other women’s?”

NB! · Archive · People · Pop Culture

The First Miss America: the American Model Margaret Gorman

The first Miss America was the American model Margaret Gorman. She was born on 18 August 1905. In 1921 she was crowned "Miss District of Columbia". The pageant, later known as "Miss America", was originally called the "Inter-City Beauty" contest.

Oil painting in a gilded frame: a young woman with short curly brown hair sits in three-quarter view, hands clasped on her lap, a grey-blue drapery across her hips.

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Painted portrait of a seated semi-nude young woman with curly hair

NB! · Observations

Of myself I can say that I was never a collector, merely more attentive than others to my property

Oil still life of orange and yellow-green fruit on pink cloth over a grey tabletop. The painting hangs in an ornate gilded frame on a white wall.

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Still life with fruit in a gilded frame

NB! · Architecture · Cinema · Heritage

The hunting galleries of the French château of Raray, built in the early seventeenth century, were immortalised in world culture by Jean Cocteau, who chose them as the setting for his 1946 film "Beauty and the Beast", with Josette Day and Jean Marais, who

NB! · Observations

Good morning, and a productive working week

NB! · Interviews · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

The Squirrel from "Ice Age" Turns Up in Svetlana Zharnikova's Interview

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Well, Hang In There

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Restoration of the Single-Storey Wooden Terskoy-Lopatin House in Sechenovsky Lane

Restoration of the single-storey wooden Terskoy-Lopatin House in Sechenovsky Lane. The house dates from the 1820s and has fine stucco decoration characteristic of the period, together with a wrought-iron fence. The building stood empty for many years but, thank God, has survived. I hope the restoration work

Screenshot of a Moscow traffic map with closed road sections shown in black and with no-entry signs, including sections of the TTK.

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Society · Humour

Road closures marked on the map of Moscow, Garden Ring remains open

Meanwhile, half of Moscow is closed off again. Thank goodness it's not the Garden Ring, at least

NB! · Society · Pop Culture

The Melodiya Company, the country's oldest sound industry firm, will open a vinyl record plant

The Melodiya Company, the country's oldest sound industry firm, will open a vinyl record plant. The plant will be launched in Novosibirsk in spring 2025, producing 100,000 records a year, both from Melodiya's catalogue and to order