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Fidel Castro plays basketball in Kraków in 1972

NB! · Architecture · Humour

There is an old joke about the Parthenon: when they finally finish building it, it will look magnificent!

A soldier in a red tunic lies on the ground in front of the ranks while a rider in red uniform passes on a dark horse.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Soldier faints at a parade attended by Elizabeth II in a 1970 photograph

A soldier faints during a parade attended by Elizabeth II. This famous shot of 1970 could, in principle, quite easily have served as the cover of a British punk rock band's record

NB! · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

When 17-year-old Prince Charles was flying to study in Australia, a girl he had never met, Star Fluke by name, kissed him at Hawaii airport and said her dream of kissing a future king had come true

NB! · Art · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Many years have passed, yet I still cannot fathom how it came about that in François Boucher's painting two people emerged from the sea on the back of a single fellow, while on James Cameron's enormous wooden door there was no room for two?

NB! · Books · People · Humour

Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Our Answer to Buddy Winkle

NB! · Monarchies · Science · Society Pages

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden yesterday at the dinner in honour of the Nobel laureates at the Royal Palace in Stockholm

Terracotta figurine of a child riding a pig against a dark background in a museum display, with a painted ancient vase nearby.

NB! · Archaeology · Mores · Ethnography

Ancient Rattle of a Child on a Pig from Taras and Its Role as an Amulet

A child riding a pig, 3rd century BC, Taranto, Italy. Even over two thousand years ago children played with rattles, but besides entertainment the rattle also served as an amulet: the sound made by the pebbles inside was believed capable of frightening off evil powers

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores

The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna plays billiards with her elder sister, Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of England

NB! · Archive · London · Monarchies · People

Prince Albert, Duke of York, on his way to his house at 145 Piccadilly, 10 December 1936, on the eve of his proclamation as King George VI following the abdication of King Edward VIII

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Let us consider the superfluous man not through the Byronic hero of Romanticism, but through the fire-safety sensor in Queen Wilhelmina's salon at Soestdijk Palace: it is, of course, necessary, but to look appropriate, it…

In a church with a gilded iconostasis, a bearded man holds an icon beside a man in a suit, while a woman in a green coat and fascinator carries an infant in a white gown.

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