Rai stones
Rai stones are large, circular stone disks carved out of limestone in the island of Yap, Micronesia. Locals have used these stones as a form of unusual currency.
Legendary Parties
Legendary Parties is a book by Jean-Louis De Faucigny-Lucinge. The author, who traces his family to the 11th century when they ruled the Barony of Faucigny in Savoie, and who was active in French political and banking circles, records details of certain rarefied fetes held in France between 1922 and 1972, which he hosted or attended as a guest. He recalls the lavish costume balls presided over by such glitterati as the Count Etienne de Beaumonts, the Viscount de Noailleses and the Baron Guy de Rothschilds. In 1928, the author and his first wife "Baba," now deceased (he describes her as "exotically beautiful" and "one of the most elegant women in Paris"), gave a soiree, based on the theme of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, which ended at six in the morning under the Eiffel Tower. There are handsome photographs by Cecil Beaton and reproductions of drawings by Pablo Picasso and Yves Saint Laurent, and of Christian Berard's hand-painted screens.
Jacques Mesrine
Jacques Mesrine was a French criminal who was also briefly active in the United States and Canada. He was responsible for numerous bank robberies, burglaries, and kidnappings, and claimed in an autobiography he wrote from prison to have committed upwards of forty murders. He was adept at disguising himself (earning himself the moniker "The Man of a Hundred Faces") and making successful escapes from prison.
Zouave
Zouave was the title given to certain infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962.
Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist and founder of modern ethology, the study of animal behaviour by means of comparative zoological methods.
Project Manhigh
Project Manhigh along with Project Excelsior was a pre-Space Age military project that took men in balloons to the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Belmond Villa San Michele
Belmond Villa San Michele, a former monastery, now a hotel, is nestled on a hilltop surrounded by trees and terraced gardens, overlooking the city of Florence below. Dating from the 15th century its facade is attributed to Michelangelo.
Lo-life
In 1987, New York City was home to two gangs, both utterly obsessed with the fashion label Ralph Lauren – and neither was made up of WASPY, country club types. There was Ralphie’s Kids from St John’s and Utica in Crown Heights, and the amusingly titled United Shoplifters Association hailing from Marcus Garvey Village in Brownsville. They would occasionally pass each other, exchanging knowing nods or stopping to pose for group pictures, until the following year when members Thirstin Howl the 3rd and Rack-Lo would bring the two parties together. Their respective names were ditched and the Lo Lifes were born – a tribe of stylish young men with a love of Polo by Ralph Lauren.
WET
A magazine of gourmet bathing was published in Venice and Santa Monica between 1976 and 1981.
Darius Kinsey
Darius Kinsey was a photographer active in western Washington State from 1890 to 1940. He is best known for his large-format images of loggers and all phases of the region's lumber industry.