Tag Archives: Not Couture

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Shiseido Company, Limited, at 140 years, is the oldest cosmetics company in the world. (Courtesy: Not Couture)

* Learning foreign languages increases the probability of buying books translated from that language to your native language. (Personal Courtesy: The New York Review of Books

* The first English-language film to use the word “homosexual” is Victim, which was released in 1961. (Courtesy: Harper’s)

* The three largest employers in the World are the Department of Defense, People’s Liberation Army, and Wal-mart. (Courtesy: Harper’s)

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Ulyana Sergeenko is a Russian designer with an incredible collection. The dresses, particularly the short ones, are fantastic. The shoe pairings are abysmal, though. (Courtesy: Russian Vogue, via Not Couture)

* The existence of halal cosmetics, and their attractiveness for vegetarians/vegans. (Courtesy: can’t remember, but The New Inquiry)

* Charlie Chaplin’s birth is shrouded in mystery and government absurdity. (Courtesy: New York Times)

* The term “bistro” may have developed from the Russian occupation of Paris in the early 19th century, when Russian soldiers would shout “быстро!” (quickly!). There is an alternative etymology, though, that involves coffee. (Courtesy: New Inquiry)

* “Roman writers subscribed to the idea of imitatio: they viewed their role as emulating and reworking earlier masterpieces. It wasn’t until the Romantic era, which introduced the notion of the author as solitary genius, that originality came to be viewed as the paramount literary virtue.” (Courtesy: New Yorker)