NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Here's Paul I, and I have nothing to add

NB! · Museums · Observations

I have a dream: that all museums would open at 10 a.m. at the very latest

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Heritage · Society

The Lenin Monument in Kostroma, Erected on the Pedestal of the Monument to the 300th Anniversary of the House of Romanov

The Lenin monument in Kostroma, erected on the pedestal of the monument to the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. One might say that this monument reflects three milestones of Russian history: the Tsarist, the Soviet and the present day, to which the monument owes the gaping holes in

Map of Europe with countries coloured by train speed in kilometres per hour, Spain and France shown in dark green.

NB! · Geography · Observations

Map of train speeds in European countries, highest in Spain and France

Train speeds in Europe. We are doing decently, but one would like to match Spain, or at least Italy

White frames on a wooden wall hold photographs of restaurant guests, including a man in a suit and a woman wearing pearls beside a man.

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

Photographs of Georgy and Maria Romanov on the wall of the Old Pier restaurant in Kostroma

I do love studying the boards of honoured guests in restaurants. In the Staraya Pristan in Kostroma I found a photograph of Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov and Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, which answered the question of whether the present representatives of the Russian Imperial House had ever visited the city that was

NB! · Faith · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

I don't know which musical event is on in Kostroma just now, but on a tour of the Ipatiev Monastery I bumped into Sergey Shnurov

NB! · Books · Moscow · Observations

This is what the system for transporting volumes from the stacks to the issue desk looks like at the Lenin Library

NB! · Observations

How can one not love the age in which we live?

A woman in a black dress rests her head on the edge of an open chest, with a white satin dress and white shoes on the floor beside her.

Art · Observations · Mores

Painting by Frederick William Elwell, 1911, of a woman in black beside an open chest

Remembering what the wedding dress cost. Frederick William Elwell, 1911

Books · Observations · Science

Beware of Things!

Beware of things! They enslave us very quickly and very firmly! So Ebenezer Sidney, the hero of Alexander Grin's novella "The Grey Motor-Car", warns his interlocutor as he reflects on the degree to which mechanical objects, or creatures, may be endowed with life. I recalled

Relief map of the Mediterranean and Black Seas with French labels, turned so that west is at the top.

Geography · Maps · Observations

The Mediterranean on Sabine Réthoré's 2011 map with west at the top

What If We Turned the Mediterranean Upside Down? Sometimes one simply has to look from the other side

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour