Weekend assignment: learning from the eighteenth-century Dutch draughtsman Johannes Merken how to react to an encounter with passive-aggressive yappers: we simply keep moving along in our elegant carriage, drawn by a charming little horse
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Congressman Raskin proposes Smithsonian exhibition on Trump's propaganda
Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman for Maryland, has introduced in the US House of Representatives a bill that would oblige the Smithsonian Institution to create a permanent exhibition on the propaganda of Donald Trump. The bill is entitled the "Preserving and Remembering the History of Trump and Other Tyrants
Bronze Gallic bracelet of the 3rd or 2nd century BC from the Bucquoy necropolis
This bronze bracelet, discovered in the Celtic necropolis of Bucquoy in the department of Val-d'Oise, is an outstanding example of Gallic jewellery-making. The ornament dates from the 3rd or 2nd century BC and belongs to the heyday of the La Tène culture. The piece is distinguished
How silver became the basis of the Ming tax system and why its shortage destroyed the dynasty
The emperors of the Ming dynasty, which ruled China from 1368 to 1644, were in dire need of silver in the sixteenth century. It went chiefly on prestige projects such as the Forbidden City in Beijing and the repair of the Great Wall. The historian Mark Cartwright writes in the
The White Mouse cocktail from London's The Stafford hotel and the life of spy Nancy Wake
Thirty millilitres of saffron gin, fifteen millilitres of fresh lemon juice, fifteen millilitres of honey and rosemary syrup, dry champagne and a star anise for garnish. The White Mouse cocktail is named after the legendary Nancy Wake, the most decorated servicewoman of the Second World War. The Gestapo nicknamed her