NB! · Monarchies · Science · Pop Culture · Humour
A woman has seen the face of Princess Diana in a slice of tinned ham. Though it looks rather more like Margaret Thatcher, my dear, or like pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon whereby people see faces in all manner of everyday objects, surfaces, abstract textures and details of the landscape
Art · Museums · Observations · Paris · Pop Culture
The first thought on seeing this dreadful advertisement: did the collaboration bring the Louvre, which houses Poussin's immortal canvas, enough money to acquire for its collection yet another painting by the French master, recently come up at auction? The second: the figures of this very picture are not
Archive · Observations · Mores · Pop Culture
Stumbled upon this photograph by chance and may have found the longest wedding veil in history; its owner was the British-born Australian dancer and actress Madge Elliott. In September 1935 Madge married the Australian actor Cyril Ritchard. The dress and veil were created by the English couturier Peter Russell.
Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
Remember the Australian comedian who calls himself the secret son of King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles? He has turned up again, and all the more opportunely, since the King and Queen's visit to Australia has come at just the right moment. As fresh proof of his royal
NB! · Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Nature · Humour
Does anyone still remember the popular baby hippo? To my mind, the sweet piglet by Hans Hoffmann, 1578, is not one whit less charming. Though, is there a single young creature in the world that fails to melt the heart?
Archive · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour
It might as easily have been Vladlen Davydov, Svetlana Druzhinina and Klara Luchko. And they would have been drinking tea with blackcurrant jam
NB! · Books · Pop Culture · Humour
One-bedroom flat for sale or exchange for Volume 4 of the comic: Tyumen's biggest fan of Major Grom discovered. Or else a very witty piece of work by the marketers
Archive · Museums · Observations · Paris · Pop Culture
The Bar jacket has appeared in every Dior collection, but on this occasion the House's archive invites us to see how the garment changed under successive creative directors: Yves Saint Laurent's Sultan dress of 1958, Marc Bohan's white dress with a black hat of
Archive · Paris · Pop Culture
The lady in the foreground of the first photograph is Julie Wolfthorn (1864–1944); the woman captured in the third portrait is a German modernist artist and graphic designer
Cinema · Paris · Pop Culture · Society Pages
The beautiful Julia Roberts, the heroine who has won the hearts of millions in Stepmom, Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and Erin Brockovich, has been honoured for creating cult characters in the treasury of world cinema, with roles in films that have become cult classics. The awards themselves will be presented
Observations · Heritage · Paris · Pop Culture
A Balenciaga show at Les Invalides. No comment. Fortunately, the show is being held in a specially built pavilion beside Les Invalides rather than in the monument itself. I hope not a single tomb of Napoleon has suffered. For days now the erection of the structure has barred my access
NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
I travel Berlin class, black cars. But what proves popular is the “Uber Fashion” fare