Who Cares What Mona Lisa is Smiling About?

I always thought that the Mona Lisa was overrated.
Hot? - No.
Bright, Eye Appealing Colors? - No.
So reading this made me feel a little more smug and self-satisfied.

From a Wall Street Journal review of Everything Is Obvious, by Duncan Watts: “Mr. Watts asks why the Mona Lisa is the most admired painting in the world today – why most people believe it to possess unique, timeless features that set it apart. Before the 20th century, the Mona Lisa wasn’t even the most popular painting in the Louvre. But in 1911 it was stolen, smuggled to Italy and exhibited widely before being returned to France, whereupon Marcel Duchamp defaced a reproduction of it and labelled his work with an obscene pun. The painting rocketed to fame, its pigments and brushstrokes unchanged. The Mona Lisa is the artistic equivalent of the investor who did nothing special until he got lucky a few years (or quarters) in a row and was feted as a genius.

Lazy Belgians

Mexicans work longest, Belgians the Shortest

“Mexicans work the longest days and Belgians the shortest, according to a study of 29 industrialized countries released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,” Reuters reports. “The stereotype of a laid-back manana culture was turned on its head by the OECD’s Society at a Glance study, which showed Mexicans toil for 10 hours a day on average in paid and unpaid work, such as household chores. Belgians work just seven, an hour less than the average in most other OECD countries.”

Houses - Modern and Pre-Modern

Interesting Stuff About Houses from The Globe And Mail

Homes, room by room

“Centuries ago, there was no such thing as a kitchen, a living room or a bedroom for anyone but the rich,” BBC News Magazine says. “There was a central hearth for warmth and to cook food, with straw-filled pallets laid on the floor for sleeping.” Lucy Worsley, curator of Historic Royal Palaces, explains how rooms emerged. – Living room: Aristocrats had living rooms in the Tudor period. Middling people started to get them in the 17th century, and in the 18th century everybody aspired to having such a room. The concept of taste had arrived.

– Bedroom: Once communal, today the bedroom is a private retreat. “In medieval times, your main concerns were to be warm and safe, so it was delightful to be in with other people. Since then we’ve seen a trend toward privacy, which started with the rise of reading,” she says.

– Kitchen: Once purely functional, the kitchen has been changed into a social space. In medieval times it was the central hearth, the heart of the home.

– Bathroom: The youngest room in the house. It has only become a separate room in the past 100 years. “People didn’t used to think that going to the loo was a private matter. Samuel Pepys, in 17th-century London, had a ‘closed stool’ – a velvet-covered seat that stood over your chamber pot – that he was very proud of. He kept his in his drawing room,” Ms. Worsley says.