Perhaps not the most intriguing piece of news, but still, to some extent, topical

Perhaps not the most intriguing piece of news, but still, to some extent, topical. In the diary of the Dutch poet Willem de Clercq (not to be confused with his exact namesake, the President of South Africa in the 1990s), there is an entry about a sorrowful letter from Beler, the tutor of his children, dated spring 1840, which tells of the apparently serious ill health of Beler's daughter and of the fact that he is opposed to vaccination (evidently against smallpox), for which he is condemned by society and subjected on all sides to savage attacks. In the same diary, two years later, there is an entry about the death of a child. But, as you see, society in those years was more enlightened

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Perhaps not the most intriguing piece of news, but still, to some extent, topical

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s