This is one of the most moving things I’ve seen

Recent Posts

• New header image: Zinaida Serebryakova, Harvest 1915 February 14, 2021
• Happy New Year! February 12, 2021
• New header image: Zinaida Serebryakova, artist’s sister Olga Lanceray, at Neskuchnoye, family estate near Kharkov, 1911 February 7, 2021
• New header image: Zinaida Serebryakova, artist’s sister Olga Lanceray, 1910 January 31, 2021
• BYE January 28, 2021
• Why it’s a big deal that Kamala Harris is VP January 24, 2021
• P.S. and you have to be a particularly willing kind of blinded to the reasons behind Serbian anger too… January 24, 2021
• Problem solved: how to clean out the image-swamp of our civilization: get together once every ten years… January 24, 2021
• Us: “…a people of relationship and dense social interaction…” January 24, 2021
• Brando in “Streetcar…” Oh, please… January 23, 2021
• Novi Sad: January 21 – 23, the Racija January 23, 2021
• Photo: protestor in Omsk, January 23rd 2021 January 23, 2021
• “This is so me.” January 23, 2021
• “Russia will be free.” Can a critical mass of Russians actually get a critical degree of angry? January 23, 2021
• New Header Image: Zinaida Serebryakova — Зинаида Серебрякова — self-portrait, 1909 January 23, 2021
• Lies, lies, lies….the olympus view again January 20, 2021
• St. Nick’s, my parish church when in Peter January 18, 2021
• Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse located on the Pennine moors, is thought to have inspired Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights (1847). January 18, 2021
• Scumbags…forgive my French… When does Russia fucking grow up??? January 18, 2021
• Photo: Bosporus, winter 1954 January 16, 2021
• French imperialism, still rearing its ugly head, fomenting sectarianism and Islamophobia, promoting “elite minority supremacism”, and teaching French… January 16, 2021
• New home page image: Zinaida Serebryakova’s portrait of husband Boris January 16, 2021
• Neveska: protected from everything except the erasure of its historic name by the Hellenic Ministry of Hellenism January 16, 2021
• John Singer Sargent, Palazzo Grimani, Venice 1907 January 15, 2021
• Kiev and Kievans, decked out in gold and sun and honey — summer 2010 January 15, 2021
• My friend P’s sardonic Serbian humor: terrible government January 15, 2021
• My friend P’s sardonic Serbian humor: Peace on Earth January 15, 2021
• “Ok, Salman, where was the Prophet (PBUH) born?” January 15, 2021
• Cute Kitty Twitters: your cats are stupid. January 15, 2021
• Women from villages in the region of Ikonio (Konya) in the 1910s January 15, 2021
• Two of Edward Lear’s least striking and interesting drawings of 19th century Jiannena — just can’t find the others anywhere. January 15, 2021
• Photo: Selfie in Jiannena January 15, 2021
• Trapezounda Opera House, 1912 — 1958 January 15, 2021
• Smyrna waterfront: drawing and photograph, 1910s January 15, 2021
• The Acropolis, 1820 January 15, 2021
• Photo: Sarajevo 1938 January 15, 2021
• Ussama Makdisi: not a dude I’m often that kind to, comes up with a slightly chewed-edged but legit position January 15, 2021
• Tito: whatever fun you had this new year, Tito had more. January 15, 2021
• Doors of Toulouse January 15, 2021
• Our view of Bahçeli January 13, 2021
• Μαλάκα, Greeks were always really funny… Here is Aristophanes, complaining to a friend for his totally inappropriate behavior towards his son: January 13, 2021
• Frequency of Italian family names Greco and Spagnuolo by region — And Greeks and Albanians in Italy January 13, 2021
• My friend Pelagia in Belgrade: some great serbo-funny tweets in the great tradition of that people’s black and acerbic humor. January 13, 2021
• Have a VERY Happy New Year, Julian friends — love you all January 13, 2021
• Photo: Epiphany in Derviçani and naughty altar boys January 12, 2021
• Madrid: not to make light of the hardship caused… January 12, 2021
• Jordan Peterson calls out West’s ignorance of Stalinist/Communist repression: “…the fact that we don’t know that deep inside our bones is a testament to the absolute rot of our education system.” January 12, 2021
• I have a black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirt and I’m pissed January 12, 2021
• January 6th: Epiphany January 6, 2021
• A genuinely happy 2021 to everybody: Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης «Κεριά» — Cavafy’s “Candles” — Greek, English, Russian, Spanish, Italian — and sung by Eirene Pappa January 1, 2021
• And a 2021 Happy New Year message to that special group of family and friends — you all know who you are… December 31, 2020
• Russia: the Pussy Riot’s 2021 New Year message on LGBTQ rights December 31, 2020
• Also lost to Covid in 2020: Soumitra Chatterjee December 31, 2020
• Therapy: This was really funny. Dunno if I agree but I laughed. December 31, 2020
• “We would lose WWII today.” December 31, 2020
• My favorite Serbian pop music videos from 2020 (not necessarily when they came out, but when I discovered them) December 31, 2020
• Luke Ranieri: “Christmas Eve with ScorpioMartianus 🎄 Latin & Greek Lesson · Christmas story from the Bible” — a live chat video everyone should watch December 31, 2020
• Wine, Baudelaire: “…a song full of joy, light and hope.” December 31, 2020
• FRANCE: “And the first thing you need to understand about that place is that it’s a hell of a lot more than a romantic little country from the past.” December 30, 2020
• Found this in a file of old unposted posts, and since 2020 felt more like 2000 than 2000 did, it might mark the loss of ANTHONY BOURDAIN, even if a little bit late: “When I die…” December 30, 2020
• City chauvinism and Zonaras’ lament December 30, 2020
• My Best of Byzantine Ambassador’s tweets for 2020 December 30, 2020
• Photo: More New York in the snow, Neill Libbert, December 1960 December 30, 2020
• Wonderful Jewish grandmother who speaks a ton of languages December 30, 2020
• Photo: Musa-paša Mosque in Nova Kasaba, Bosnia December 30, 2020
• The Ashta Nayika in Indian painting, some Krishna and Radha thoughts, Linus and Hinduism, and Byz Amb on “safe” sex December 30, 2020
• Photo: Sophia Loren and prosecco December 30, 2020
• CENGIZ AKTAR: Don’t think Turkey is going back to normal any time soon; its civil society institutions (for what they were, let’s not exaggerate) are just too damaged. December 29, 2020
• Map: HDP members jailed in Turkey, municipalities they come from and where they’re jailed December 29, 2020
• Erdie: “The people of Turkey are behind me!” December 29, 2020
• From — yes — Wiki: a good summary definition of “Archetype”, for when you use it with people and they have no clue what you’re talking about. December 29, 2020
• Minarets and belltowers and erections on Twitter December 29, 2020
• Agnès Poirier and Irish reunification December 29, 2020
• Croatian facho tourist prop on Balkan Insight December 28, 2020
• Nesi Altaras: “We do not live in the Ottoman Empire and we are not subjects. As citizens we demand and deserve EQUAL CITIZENSHIP not TOLERANCE.” December 28, 2020
• “France is a symbol…” December 28, 2020
• No one on new Greek Survivor 2021, SKAI, is good-looking, wtf? December 27, 2020
• Turkey and its Jews: Avlaremoz, the Varlık Vergisi and Şekip Bey, the appropriation of minority capital, Sephardic Jews and Spain December 26, 2020
• New header image from Sergey Paradzhanov’s “Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors” — Тіні забутих предків December 26, 2020
• Beautiful photos of Peter at Christmas, from Eraxite @Eraxite1 December 26, 2020
• Christmas Eve — A painting by Auschwitz survivor Janina Tollik December 25, 2020
• “If Jesus was born today…” December 25, 2020
• The Queen, from me, with no apologies. December 25, 2020
• “The Liberal mind is oversexualized…” says تاریخ خراسان December 25, 2020
• Carl Jung: “Ending Your Inner Civil War” December 24, 2020
• Frangiko Christmas damper December 24, 2020
• Radio Free Europe — Radio Liberty: “When The World Looked Away: The Destruction Of Julfa Cemetery” December 24, 2020
• Photo: Mughal painting of Christ and the Virgin Mary December 24, 2020
• Photo: Assyrian women in front of the Assyrian Mar Narsai Church in Nohadra, Northern Iraq…survivors December 24, 2020
• Photo: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, 1930s December 24, 2020
• Photo: Russian forest December 24, 2020
• “El niño divino, que está cansado de llorar en la tierra por su descanso…” — Lope de Vega December 24, 2020
• The beautiful “Shirazi Turk”-ish kid from the corny German commercial December 24, 2020
• Photo: the Great Conjunction over Athens December 23, 2020
• Viken Berberian in the NYRB: Armenia’s Tragedy in Shushi — “Will the apocryphal stories continue or will one day both sides acknowledge the other’s memories?” December 23, 2020
• NikoBako reads: Dangers of Convenient Universalism: Power Relations and Responsibility of Scholars on the Hagia Sophia — Axel B. Çorlu: “The reconversion of Hagia Sophia is about power…” December 23, 2020
• NikoBako reads: Tom Holland on secularism, France, Islam… December 23, 2020
• Aaargh…what a nightmare…Christmas December 23, 2020
• Cormac Moore in the Irish News: “Partition 100 Years On: The Government of Ireland Act 1920, ‘a ghastly Christmas gift'” December 23, 2020
• “Whose are you?” December 23, 2020
• Winter Solstice — Fuzuli P.S. December 22, 2020
• Pontic Christmas Carols — the chilling sound of an orchestra of kemencedes…you feel like the earth’s moving under your feet. December 22, 2020
• Winter Solstice — Fuzuli December 21, 2020
• “Turks complete first freight train line to China”: Cool, can they go back home now? December 20, 2020
• Ukrainian Stepford Wives December 20, 2020
• Maraş massacre, 1978 December 19, 2020
• Feast of St. Nicholas on Julian Calendar, old post, and Срећна Cлава to all Serbian friends celebrating today December 19, 2020
• Agnès Poirier, one of the great journalist-celebrity crushes of my life, “liked” my tweet December 18, 2020
• Iason Athanasiadis, photo of Oran, Namara Smith on Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation, and Camus’ dis of said city December 18, 2020
• “Taliban use violence as leverage”: gee, thanks for that insight. December 18, 2020
• Missing snowstorms in New York, which are a lot of fun December 18, 2020
• Sometimes I even miss America December 18, 2020
• Germans, Turks, Christmas December 18, 2020
• Byz Amb on safe sex December 17, 2020
• Hanukkah in Ortaköy: It’s so nice to celebrate religious minorities’ culture when the minorities have been safely eliminated December 17, 2020
• “The only remaining democratic party in TR is HDP.” December 15, 2020
• Erdie: “America will pay the price.” December 15, 2020
• Sergey Bodrov, from film “Brother” (Брат), Trinity Bridge, Petersburg December 15, 2020
• Terence December 15, 2020
• Jews, Yiddish, past participles and the Rzeczpospolita December 15, 2020
• Rudeness in Europe: from a Quora discussion. I found these scarily accurate… December 15, 2020
• Photo: Moscow, Nikol’skaya Street December 15, 2020
• Sorry, only funny if you speak Greek and watch Greek Big Brother 2020 December 15, 2020
• Nationalism… December 15, 2020
• Photo: Connemara, county Galway, 1927– Three generations of Irish women stand outside their stone cottage. American photographer Clifton Royal Adams. December 14, 2020
• Hagia Sophia: a picture is worth a thousand words December 14, 2020
• Thirty largest cities in Europe, 1050 – 1800 A.D. December 13, 2020
• Heathcliff (I’m assuming): “I care nothing for your sufferings.” December 13, 2020
• Niko Pirosmani: Portrait of wine-pub owner on a red background December 12, 2020
• Even more beautiful Irish singing: The Rocky Road To Dublin – The Ramparts December 12, 2020
• Erdie and the EU: When it would be funny if it weren’t so depressing and worrisome December 12, 2020
• Alexandria’s Nuovo Teatro Alhambra, 1926 December 12, 2020
• Όταν θα πάω κυρά μου στο παζάρι, Irish edition December 12, 2020
• Great Macron photo, EU and Turkey December 12, 2020
• These are hilarious: “…Kyiv, Ukraine yesterday…people struggling to walk downhill due to ice covering the street…” December 12, 2020
• Today is International Mountain Day December 12, 2020
• Moscow Tavern — Московский трактир — Boris Kustodiev, 1916 December 11, 2020
• This is Fantastic! BILLIE JEAN (A CAPELLA TRÈS SPECIAL !!!) December 11, 2020
• Salonica p.s.: cool map December 8, 2020
• Ekathimerini: The ghosts of Thessaloniki are still here, by Leon Saltiel December 8, 2020
• P.P.S. Salonica and the myth of the Olympus view December 6, 2020
• P.S. Salonica and the myth of the Olympus view December 6, 2020
• From Ahval: “Rediscovering and re-evaluating the new Turkey” by Constantinopolitan Greek analyst Hercules Millas: Erdoğan and “Christianophobia” — yes, you read right — and the “limited ingredients” we have to work with. December 6, 2020
• Today is International Basque Language Day — who knew? 😳 …And another diatribe on the destructiveness of identity politics December 6, 2020
• Bosnian History @BosnianHistory posts beautiful old photos of Bosnia December 6, 2020
• Nostalgia for Yugo-land — and curses on those who destroyed it December 6, 2020
• Huah! Shout out to my homeboys in Lezarati! December 3, 2020
• The one about the Bosnian woman and pita… December 2, 2020
• Photo: Hadrian’s library. Athens. Night. Lockdown. December 2, 2020
• Video tour of recently restored Rüstem Paşa mosque, Istanbul December 1, 2020