NB! · Art

Bust of Balzac

Bust of Balzac. Work by Rodin

NB! · Books · New York · Humour

Sisyphus's To-Do List

Sisyphus's To-Do List. From The New Yorker

Studio portrait: a long-haired, moustached man in a white shirt, pleated fustanella skirt and red gaiters stands beside a seated woman in a striped gown and a tall decorated headdress.

NB!

Man and woman in traditional costume: fustanella and tall ornate headdress

NB! · Museums · Ethnography

Greek Wedding Costume of the 18th and 19th Centuries

NB! · Cinema · Observations

Ken Russell's "Gothic" is not merely very frightening, but very beautiful too

Ken Russell's "Gothic" is not merely a very frightening film, but a very beautiful one too. Weekend viewing, with our traditional cinema rubric.

NB! · Archive · Art · Observations · Humour

If time machines do not exist, how did Patrick Bruel end up in a fourteenth-century manuscript?

Relief head of Medusa Gorgon with a startled face and thick, wavy locks of hair, displayed in a museum case.

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Humour

Roman head of Medusa Gorgon from the 1st century AD in the Xanten Archaeological Museum

The most charming Medusa Gorgon in the world is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Xanten, Germany. The work of Roman craftsmen of the 1st century AD. In Rome, the head of Medusa was used as a talisman against evil spells

NB! · Observations · Nature

There Is No Such Thing as Bad Weather, Really

NB! · Art

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood. The Swedish artist Carl Olof Larsson, 1881

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Paris · People

Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed in the lift of the Paris Ritz on 30 August 1997, the last day before their deaths

Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed in the lift of the Paris Ritz on 30 August 1997, the last day before their deaths. The third person in the lens of the surveillance camera is Claude Roulet, assistant to the president of the Ritz hotel

NB! · Archive · Society

Gorbachev Was the Last of the Trio Who Brought the Cold War to an End

Gorbachev was the last of the trio who brought the Cold War to an end. Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022), Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

NB! · Humour