Books · Moscow · Observations · Mores · Saint Petersburg

Kofemania on Bolshaya Nikitskaya and the place of coffee in old Russia and Russian literature

The much-discussed “Kofemania” and its clientele are not merely a portrait of our times. Whenever I visit one of my favourite branches, the one on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, I find myself, for some reason, transported into the atmosphere of the celebrated nineteenth-century Petersburg coffee house of “Wolff and Béranger”

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Fire during repairs at Saint-Sulpice church in Paris damages doors and façade

Incidentally, exactly a month ago, on 18 March, another very significant church in Paris, Saint-Sulpice, caught fire, also during restoration work. Fortunately, the blaze was quickly put out; the doors, part of the façade and part of the interior decoration suffered, and the church is now being restored. What

NB! · Museums · Observations · Nature

A narwhal tusk from the Anatomy Museum of the University of Edinburgh: a marvel, is it not?

Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

There is a well-worn quotation about how Tolstoy created the image of Natasha Rostova: "I took Tanya, ground her up with Sonya, and out came Natasha"

Tanya is Tatyana Andreyevna Bers-Kuzminskaya, Lev Nikolayevich's sister-in-law, who also lived at Yasnaya Polyana; Sonya is his wife, Sofya Andreyevna. Agreed, it is hard, even with the greatest effort, to believe that these women could have been the prototypes of Natasha. For my part, I

Archive · Books · Observations · Society

"A small room, plain, petty-bourgeois

"A small room, plain, petty-bourgeois. Stalin is drunk, 'blind drunk', as they say. There are only men in the room; of the peasants, myself and one other, black-bearded. Without a word, Vissarionovich threw the black-bearded peasant down, covered him with a sheet and raped

Archive · Books · Museums · Observations · Society

I have long wanted to tell you about one project of the Museum of the History of the Gulag: colleagues, together with the Memory Foundation, have created a collection of graphic novellas based on the recollections of people who passed through the cauldron

File on Telegram I have long wanted to tell you about one project of the Museum of the History of the Gulag: colleagues, together with the Memory Foundation, have created a collection of graphic novellas based on the recollections of people who passed through the cauldron of Stalinist repression. The

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations · Nature

A noble stump of Lebanese cedar from the 1st century BC, in excellent condition, which is, however, characteristic of the wood of this species

A noble stump of Lebanese cedar from the 1st century BC, in excellent condition, which is, however, characteristic of the wood of this species. It stands in a place of honour by the main entrance of the National Museum of Beirut. With this venerable relic I should like to draw

Faith · Observations · Ethnography

The Hasidic tish: how the rebbe distributes challah and how it recalls the Last Supper

I am not hinting at anything, but if you wish to feel how Jesus handed out bread and wine to his disciples at the Last Supper, try finding video of Hasidic feasts. To attend such a gathering would be nothing short of a miracle, if only because the way there

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations

Lebanese Late Bronze Age cosmetic vessel in the form of a duck, carved from hippopotamus tooth

This duck lying on its back was made in the Late Bronze Age from a hippopotamus tooth, and it is hollow inside. It is a special vessel for cosmetics and a true luxury object, an example of rare Lebanese work in ivory. From beak to belly, the duck was filled

NB! · Art · Observations · Nature · Humour

Psyche, a white Persian cat, portrayed by Francis Sartorius the Elder

Psyche, a white Persian cat, captured by the celebrated artist of the day Francis Sartorius the Elder (1734-1804). She looks like the Choupette of her age

A hand with a silver chain bracelet reaches towards a marble statue torso without head or arms, partly covered by drapery.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

A pull towards museum treasures and a hand beside a marble statue torso

I feel an irresistible pull towards museum treasures. As usual, though

NB! · Observations