NB! · Faith · Society · Rome · Humour
For his 85th birthday Pope Francis gave Italy 10 migrants, whom he brought over from Cyprus yesterday. That is to say, he has given a great many more migrants than that, thousands of them, but a round ten is reserved for this particular day
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Science · Society
The Museum of Moscow has a rather successful exhibition, "Take Away the Stuffed Fox", devoted to the local-lore movement and the canon. The organisers declare that the project is meant to dispel "the nostalgic aura around the museum of local lore". Suit yourselves. Many historians
Books · Moscow · Observations · Society
A favourite initiative of Moscow's libraries: adopt a withdrawn book. The city portal lists the libraries and the books they are prepared to give away. The books are conveniently sorted by category, author and subject; you can choose a library on the map or simply search for the
The East · Observations · Society · People
So, on the subject of gender, nationality and politics. Kazakhstan is issuing commemorative collector's coins with face values of 100, 500 and 5000 tenge bearing the image of Nursultan Nazarbayev. The inscription on the coins reads: independent Kazakhstan, 30 years. Of course, in Cyrillic the phrase would look
The East · Observations · Heritage · Society
Every year Greece holds a memorial ceremony honouring its heroic forebears, the participants of the revolution of 1821, also known as the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire. The country even has clubs of descendants of the fighters for freedom. The ceremony takes place at the memorial necropolis
Art · Observations · Society · Humour
The Piper Comanche shot down by dozens of arrows, fired by North Dakota Indians in protest at the building of an oil pipeline, turns out on an internet search to be the very same single-engine aircraft in which Obama flew over a reservation in Oklahoma and came under fire
Society
On 6 December 1865 the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, was ratified by the requisite number of states. Its text reads: Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist
Observations · Mores · Society · Paris · Humour
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris with newly sprouted presidential ambitions, signs a crab's shell. She writes: Vive La France! At least it is not a half-eaten cutlet, that is, a steak haché (if you ask a waiter in France for a cutlet, and the word really was
Moscow · Observations · Society · People
Today is the birthday of Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (1896-1974) When Zhukov died, his family appealed to the country's supreme leadership to have his body committed to the earth, as the Marshal of Victory himself had wished, but in vain: he was cremated, and his ashes were
Archive · Society
25 November: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Suffragettes learn jiu-jitsu techniques in order to resist police violence
Art · Society · Humour
The Soviet Union had not only sex but also magnificent women deputies, and, of course, excellent feminitives. Konstantin Gavrilovich Dorokhov, "Deputy. Collective Farm Chairwoman", 1951
Faith · Society · People · Rome
CBS has aired a report on a miracle attributed to Pope Francis. A 10-year-old boy suffering from autism and epilepsy ran up onto the stage to the Pope and began to talk with the pontiff. For his mother, it was already a miracle that her son had climbed