A West Village (NYC) cocktail lounge (circa 1940-70)

From Ephemeral New York, a very good site.

Sand dune and spring temple in China

And a flood for good measure.

Original mind at work

Anyone can burn a book, or threaten to.  How many can write stuff this good?

A medieval photograph?

Pope Pius XII and the Romans, 1944:

Here is what Dr. Beachcombing sees:

Pius who had a slightly messianic streak at times, stands before the crowd like a crucified Christ dressed in beatific white. Pius’s face (perhaps fortunately for the effect) is not visible, but watch the Romans who might have come out of a movie on the black death twist before him. My God!

 When Beachcombing first saw this fabulous portrait he felt that he finally understood a hundred chronicle descriptions of eighth- or fourteenth-century crowds ‘ooo-ing’ and ‘aargh-ing’ over the burning of a heretic or the carrying of a religious icon.

Do you agree?  Go tell him.