Beatings on the soles of the feet using either a stick or a whip.

Bastinado became well known to the Western public because of the 1978 movie Midnight Express. This torture is effective due to the clustering of nerve endings in the feet and the structure of the foot, with its numerous small bones and tendons.

The Taj Mahal

'The Last Supper' by Da Vinci

Unlike many other valuable paintings, it has never been privately owned because it cannot be moved easily.

Wednesday, from Woden

Arising from this, the German name for Wednesday has been Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week") since the 10th Century, having displaced the former name: Wodanstag ("Wodan's day"). The Finnish name is similarly practical: Keskiviikko (literally: "center of the week") as is the Icelandic name: Miðvikudags ("Mid-week day").

West End

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland". Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.

The Thatcher effect or Thatcher illusion

It is named after British former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on whose photograph the effect has been most famously demonstrated. This was originally created by Peter Thompson, who is a senior lecturer at the University of York, England. This is thought to be due to specific psychological processes involved in face perception which are tuned especially to upright faces.

Freeing of slaves

A long horizontal jump, starting from one leg and landing on the other.

It is most often done forward and usually involves doing full leg splits in mid-air. The front leg brushes straight into the air, as opposed to performing a develope or "unfolding" motion.

Calypso

Athena asked Zeus to spare Odysseus of his torment on the island, as he wanted to go to his homeland. Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, to tell Calypso to release Odysseus. As Zeus was the Lord of the Gods, she was unable to refuse him, although she wished to. The island of Gozo, part of the Maltese archipelago, has a long tradition that links it with the mythical figure of Calypso.

The Wandering Jew

A variety of names have been given to the Wandering Jew, including Melmoth, Ahasuerus, Matathias, Buttadeus, Cartophilus, Isaac Laquedem, and Juan Espera a Dios and also Jerusalemin suutari ("Shoemaker of Jerusalem" in Finnish).

Johannes Vermeer (ca. 1665–1675)

Nosebleed section/nosebleed seats

The reference alludes to the propensity for nasal hemorrhage at high altitudes, usually owing to lower barometric pressure.

Deerstalker

In Arthur Conan Doyle's stories Holmes is never actually described as wearing a deerstalker. The public perception of Holmes as a "deerstalker man" was derived from the original illustrations for the stories by Sidney Paget, Frederic Dorr Steele and others. The deerstalker is not the appropriate headgear for the properly-dressed urban gentleman and Paget and the other illustrators who portrayed Holmes in a deerstalker always placed him in the proper setting for such attire (i.e., operating in a rural outdoor setting).

The Vitruvian Man

It was created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1492. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is on display in the Gallerie dell' Accademia in Venice, Italy.

A person who faces his or her death in a Christ-like manner

Unlike martyrs, passion-bearers are not explicitly killed for their faith, though they hold to that faith with piety and true love of God. Famous passion bearers include the entire Imperial Family of Russia who were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Deja Vu

Amethyst

Amethyst is the purple variety of quartz, its chemical formula is SiO2 and it is the birthstone associated with February. The Greek word "amethystos" basically can be translated as "not drunken."

A Funeral procession

It follows the caisson carrying the casket in a funeral procession. The custom is believed to date back to the time of Genghis Khan, when a horse was sacrificed to serve the fallen warrior in the next world. The caparisoned horse later came to symbolize a warrior who would ride no more. In the United States, the caparisoned horse is part of the military honors given to an Army or Marine Corps officer who was a colonel or above; this includes the President, by virtue of having been the nation's military commander in chief and the Secretary of Defense, having overseen the armed forces.

A Mural

There are many different styles and techniques. The best-known is probably fresco, which uses water soluble paints with a damp lime wash. Murals of sorts, date to prehistoric times, such as the paintings on the Caves of Lascaux in southern France, but the term became famous with the Mexican "muralista" art movement (Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, or José Orozco).

The Villa Savoye

The house was emblematic of Le Corbusier's work in that it addressed "The Five Points", his basic tenets of a new aesthetic of architecture constructed in reinforced concrete.

Bespoke

Hence a tailor who makes clothes individually, to one's specific personal requirements, is called "bespoke". This is unlike “made-to-measure”, which simply uses a basic, pre-existing template pattern. Bespoke has its roots in Savile Row, where a customer would speak for a measure of cloth. A bolt chosen by one customer was not available for anyone else until the entire suit had been cut out and assembled.

Rubik's cube

It was invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernõ Rubik. This plastic cube comes in four widely available versions: the 2×2×2 ("Pocket Cube"), the 3×3×3 standard cube, the 4×4×4 ("Rubik's Revenge"), and the 5×5×5 ("Professor's Cube").

The Rosetta Stone

The text of the Rosetta Stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples. The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited in the British Museum since 1802, with only one break, from 1917 to 1919. Toward the end of World War I, in 1917, the Museum was concerned about heavy bombing in London and moved the Rosetta Stone to the Postal Tube Railway 50 feet below the ground at Holborn.

Zeus

For that, Zeus ordered him to be chained on top of the Caucasus. Every day an eagle would come and eat his liver, but since Prometheus was immortal, his liver always grew back, so he was left to bear the pain every day.

Phaeton

Phaeton seeks assurance that his mother, Clymene, is telling the truth that his father is the sun god Helios. When Phaeton obtains his father's promise to drive the sun chariot as proof, he fails to control it and the Earth is in danger of burning up when Phaeton is killed by a thunderbolt from Zeus to prevent further disaster.

El Dorado

El Dorado (Spanish for 'the gilded one') is a legend that began with the story of a South American tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and would dive into a lake of pure mountain water. The legend began in the 1530s, in the Andes of present-day Colombia, where conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada first found the Muisca, a nation in the modern day Cundinamarca and Boyacá highlands of Colombia, in 1537. The story of the Muisca rituals was brought to Quito by Sebastian de Belalcazar’s men; mixed with other rumors, there arose the legend of 'El Dorado'. Imagined as a place, El Dorado became a kingdom, an empire, the city of this legendary golden king.

Pecos Bill

Pecos Bill was a late addition to the "big man" idea of characters like Paul Bunyan or Iron John. Pecos Bill made the leap to film in the 1948 Disney animated feature Melody Time. Like many tall tales, Pecos Bill stories involve combinations of superhuman feats of courage and prowess.

Cenotaph

The word derives from the Greek words kenos, one meaning being "empty" and taphos, "tomb". Although the vast majority of cenotaphs are erected in honour of specific individuals, many of the best-known cenotaphs are instead dedicated to the memories of groups of individuals, such as the war dead of one specific country or empire. Probably the best-known cenotaph in the modern world is the one that stands in Whitehall, London.

Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)

Pekingese

These dogs are also called Dogs of Foo (or Fu) by the Chinese and they were considered a guardian spirit as they resembled Chinese lions. Interestingly, the lion is not indigenous to China. When Buddhist travelers, probably out to trade, brought stories about lions to China, Chinese sculptors modeled statues of lions after the travelers' descriptions--and after native dogs, since no one in China had seen a lion with his or her own eyes. The mythic version of the animal was originally introduced to Han China as the Buddhist protector of dharma.

The temple of the Hindu god Lord Venkateshwara in Tirupathi

The town owes its existence to the sacred temple situated on the Tirumala Hills. Tirumala is the abode of Lord Venkateshwara, one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, located atop Seshachala hills often called as "Yaelu Malai" or "Yaedu Kondalu" (seven hills).

The Pierian Spring

Pieria is a district of Macedonia believed to be the home of the Muses, the deities of the arts and sciences.

The Kilkenny Cats

The term Kilkenny cat now refers to anyone who is a tenacious fighter.

Romany

It is the language of the Roma and Sinti, peoples often referred to in English as "Gypsies".

Nepotism

The practise of creating cardinal-nephews originated in the Middle Ages, and reached its apex during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Roma (Gypsy) People

Legend identifies her as the servant of one of the Three Marys, with whom she is supposed to have arrived in the Camargue. The day of the pilgrimage honouring Sarah is May 24; her statue is carried down to the sea on this day to re-enact her arrival in France. Roma participation in pilgrimage and their veneration of Saint Sarah has been recorded since the middle of the 19th century by travellers and parish priests.

Constantin Brancusi

Inaugurated in Târgu Jiu, Romania on 27 October 1938, it is based on the symbolism of the axis mundi, was made as a tribute to the young Romanians who died in World War I fighting Germany, and is a stylization of the funerary pillars used in Southern Romania. In the 1950s, the Romanian communist government considered it an example of "bourgeois" sculpture and planned to demolish it, but the plan was never executed. It was restored between 1998 and 2000 through a collaborative effort of the Romanian Government, World Monuments Fund, the World Bank and other Romanian and international groups.

Australian

The name is believed to be derived from an Indigenous Australian word for head covering.

The Gemini Twins

In Roman mythology they are the twin sons of Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. They are called the Dioscuri, meaning the "youths of Zeus".

Hafiz or Hafith

Atlas

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia

The vast Hermitage collections are displayed in six buildings, the main one being the Winter Palace which used to be the official residence of the Russian Tsars. International branches of The Hermitage Museum are located in Amsterdam, London, and Las Vegas.

Jeans

Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics including corduroy. The first denim came from Nîmes, France, hence de Nimes, the name of the fabric.

Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)

Toulouse-Lautrec is known, along with Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gaugin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period.(Thanks to Sarah B for clarifying that Toulouse-Lautrec is not in the postmodern era. )

Gaucho

Like the North American word cowboy, Venezuelan or Colombian llanero, or Chilean huaso, or the Mexican vaquero, the term often connotes the 19th century more than the present day; then gauchos made up the majority of the rural pampas population, herding cattle and practicing agriculture as their main economic activities.

Styx

Legends state that Achilles was killed in battle by an arrow to the heel, and so an Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's only weakness.

Prester John (also Presbyter John)

Written accounts of this kingdom are variegated collections of medieval popular fantasy. Reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Magi, Prester John was said to be a generous ruler and a virtuous man, presiding over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, in which the Patriarch of the Saint Thomas Christians resided. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Earthly Paradise. He was a symbol to European Christians of the Church's universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity, in a time when ethnic and interreligious tension made such a vision seem distant.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

It is a 16th century Roman Catholic icon depicting an apparition of the Virgin Mary. It is Mexico's most beloved religious and cultural image. Our Lady of Guadalupe is known in Mexico as "La Virgen Morena", which means "The brown-skinned Virgin". Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day is celebrated on December 12, commemorating the account of her appearances to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531.

The color Titian

Recognized by his contemporaries as "the sun amidst small stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian (1485-1576) was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits and landscapes (two genres that first brought him fame), mythological and religious subjects.

Anubis

Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egypt's animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (they mockingly called Anubis the "Barker"), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in heaven, and Cerberus in hell.

Happy Hour

"Happy hour" entered civilian use around 1960, especially after a Saturday Evening Post article in 1959. Happy hour has become a tradition for many workers, white and blue collar alike. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_hour)

The Jargon File

The Jargon File was first made by Raphael Finkel at Stanford in 1975.

Sybarite from Sybaris

Procrustes

Nobody ever fit the bed exactly because secretly Procrustes had two beds. Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus who "fitted" Procrustes to his own bed.

Transcendental Meditation or TM

During the 1960s and early 1970s the TM Movement became seen as part of the then current "counter-culture" phenomenon, at which time a number of celebrities learned TM. Celebrity students at that time included The Beatles and The Beach Boys.

Furniture making

They were the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out"

It is an excerpt from a prepared speech he delivered at the opening of a press conference in New York City on September 19, 1966. This phrase urged people to initiate cultural changes through the use of psychedelics and by detaching themselves from the existing conventions and hierarchies in society. A common misunderstanding of the phrase, by people not familiar with the context in which it was first said, is that 'turn on, tune in, drop out' refers to 'turn on to drugs, tune in to the counterculture, and drop out of job/society/school.

The orders of Ancient Greek (classical) architecture

The Greek Doric order was the earliest and simplest while the Corinthian was most complicated.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites)

They were a group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt whose intention was to reform art by rejecting what they considered to be the mechanistic approach adopted by the Mannerist artists who followed Raphael and Michelangelo. They believed that the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on academic teaching of art. Hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite". They have been considered the first avant-garde movement in art.

Diego Rivera

Rockefeller asked Rivera to change the face of Lenin to that of an unknown laborer's face as was originally intended but the painter refused. The Rockefeller-Rivera dispute is covered in the films Cradle Will Rock and Frida.

Gold and Silver

King Arthur

As the surviving accounts of this battle are all generally little more than legend or myth, some historians doubt this battle even took place.

Machu Picchu

Sometimes called the "Lost City of the Incas", it is a well-preserved pre-Columbian Inca ruin located at 2,430 m (7,970 ft) on a mountain ridge. Machu Picchu is located above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, about 70 km (44 mi) northwest of Cusco.

As the Golden Temple

Mardi Gras

It is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also called "Shrove Tuesday" or "Pancake Day". It is the final day of Carnival and is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent.

The Medici family

The most significant accomplishments of the Medici were in the sponsorship of art and architecture, mainly early and High Renaissance art and architecture.

Nails by which Christ was fastened to the cross

Gadzooks is usually said to be an alteration of God’s hooks. According to a BBC website, the word 'Gadzooks' can be traced to the literature of the late 17th Century.

Groundhog Day

According to folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.

The theft of Mona Lisa

A Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia stole it by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed. After keeping the painting in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer.

A clear and direct statement by a potential candidate for an office that they will never run for election to that office.

The term derives from the Sherman pledge, a remark made by American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman when he was being considered as a possible Republican candidate for the presidential election of 1884. He declined, saying "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve."

Doing live performances to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips.

Beatnik

It has evolved into a media stereotype that borrowed the most superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s to present a distorted, cartoon-like misrepresentation of the real-life people found in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical fiction.

The Book of Kells

It contains the four gospels of the Bible in Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. Today it is on permanent display at the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland.

Copts

The Copts are by far the largest Christian community in North Africa and the Middle East. The word "Coptic" was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general, but it has undergone semantic shift over the centuries to mean more specifically Egyptian Christian after the bulk of the Egyptian population converted to Islam.

Mermen

The most well-known merman was probably Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Although Amphitrite gave birth to a merman, neither Poseidon nor Amphitrite were merfolk, although both were able to live under water as easily as on land. Triton was also known as the Trumpeter of the Sea for his usage of a conch shell.

The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole

Today, many Native Americans, especially those from other nations, find the "Five Civilized Tribes" label patronizing or racist. When the tribes are discussed together, sometimes the modified label "Five Tribes" is used to avoid the suggestion that other indigenous peoples were savages.

Cockaigne

Specifically, in poems like 'The Land of Cockaigne', Cockaigne is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open, and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheeses). It represented both wish fulfillment and resentment at the strictures of asceticism and dearth.

Mormonism/Latter Day Saint movement

He is an angel that Joseph Smith, Jr. said visited him on numerous occasions, beginning in 1823. The angel was the guardian of the golden plates, which Smith said were buried in a hill near his home in western New York, and which he said were the source material for the Book of Mormon.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Moroni)

Qat

Its juice has a caffeine-like affect after swallowing.

Felt

It predates weaving and knitting.

Romance Languages

They have more than 700 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in the Americas, Europe, and Africa, as well as many smaller regions scattered throughout the world. The Romance language most widely spoken natively today is Spanish, followed by Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.

How is this story immortalized in Art?

As 'The Burghers of Calais', one of the most famous sculptures by Auguste Rodin, completed in 1888.

One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first and five other burghers soon followed suit and they stripped down to their breeches. Saint Pierre led this envoy of emaciated volunteers to the city gates and it is this moment and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice and the facing of imminent death that Rodin captures in these figures, which are scaled somewhat larger than life. In history, though the burghers expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the intervention of England's Queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband by saying it would be a bad omen for her unborn child.

An Incubus

The word is derived from the Latin preposition in, which in this case means on top of, and cubo, which is Latin for "I lie". The word incubo translates into "I lie on top".

Traditional method of ritual suicide for women

Jigai is the female equivalent of seppuku, the ritual stomach-cutting suicide practiced by Japanese men. Although the term literally means "self damage" and in principle can refer to suicide in general, in practice it normally refers to the ritual suicide of women by the cutting of the jugular vein with a tantō (15-30 cm (6-12 inch) knife) or kaiken (15 cm (6 inch) knife). Often, they would be hidden prior within the sash of their kimono.

Pitchforks

The commonly accepted etymology derives warlock from the Old English wǣrloga meaning deceiver, or "oathbreaker".

Pound

The symbol derives from capital "L", standing for libra, the basic Roman unit of weight, which is in turn derived from the Latin word for scales or a balance.

The Incas

Shennong

The most well-known work attributed to Shennong is the 'The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic' first compiled some time during the end of the Western Han Dynasty, several thousand years after Shennong supposedly existed – which lists the various medical herbs such as reishi which were discovered by Shennong and given grade and rarity ratings. Tea is said to be his discovery. Shennong is also venerated as the Father of Chinese medicine and is believed to have introduced the technique of acupuncture.

Grand Guignol

From its opening in 1897 to its closing in 1962, specialized in naturalistic horror shows. The name is often used as a general term for graphic, amoral horror entertainment. The theater owed its name to Guignol, a traditional Lyonnaise puppet character, joining political commentary with the style of Punch and Judy.

Penjing

Penjing generally fall into one of three categories depending on what their subject matter is. These categories are Tree Penjing (essentially bonsai), Landscape Penjing, and Water and Land Penjing.

Historically in China, Japan, and Macedonia, the fishing skills of which bird have been put to good use this way?

The Cormorant

In Japan, traditional forms of it can be seen on the Nagara River in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, where cormorant fishing has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years, or in the city of Inuyama, Aichi. In Guilin, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River. The method is not as common today, since more efficient methods of catching fish have been developed.

Mr. Yuk

The Mr. Yuk symbol has been used as a replacement for the traditional skull-and-crossbones (a.k.a. Jolly Roger) warning label for poison. This is because some young children are thought to associate this symbol with pirates and therefore may misinterpret it as an invitation to ingest the poison.

On Carey Street

The court moved to Carey Street in the 1840s but the phrase didn't emerge as a synonym for bankrupt until much later.

Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan is considered by many to be the mother of modern dance. Although popular in the United States only in New York later in her life, she performed to acclaim throughout Europe.

Las Meninas

Luca Giordano, the influential Italian late Baroque painter, said of Las Meninas that it was, itself, the "theology of painting" and Thomas Lawrence, the English painter said that it incarnates the philosophy of art.

Armory Show

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796 - 1875)

Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid- nineteenth century. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting.

Qanat or Kareez

The technology is known to have developed in ancient Persia, and then spread to other cultures, especially along the Silk Road as far east as China as well as by Arabic cultures as far west as Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally qanats are built by a group of skilled laborers, muqannîs, with hand labor. The profession historically paid well and was typically handed down from father to son.

Billingsgate

Vellum

The manufacture is involved: animal skin is cleaned, stretched on a frame, and scraped with a curved knife. To create tension, scraping is alternated by wetting and drying.

Asgard

The realm of the mortals being called Midgard. Should not be confused with Valhalla, which is Odin's hall and is the home for those slain gloriously in battle.

Lady Godiva

The name "peeping Tom" for a voyeur comes from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom watched her ride and was stricken blind.

A matryoshka doll or a Russian nested doll

They are also called stacking dolls or Babushka dolls. "Matryoshka" is a diminutive from the Russian female first name "Matryona", which is traditionally associated with a corpulent, robust, rustic Russian woman. Matroyoshkas are often designed to follow a particular theme, for instance peasant girls in traditional dress, but the theme can be almost anything, ranging from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.

The Tuareg

They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa.

Guerilla

Guerrilla warfare is a method of unconventional combat by which small groups of combatants attempt to use mobile and surprise tactics (ambushes, raids, etc) to defeat a foe, often a larger, less mobile, army.

Borough English

The origin of the custom of Borough English has been much disputed.

Mrs Grundy

Curiously for so famous a character, Mrs Grundy never actually appears in the play which introduced her.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Grundy)

Tantalus

It is from this story that the word 'tantalizing' comes.

Devil's Advocate

The Devil's advocate was opposed by God's advocate, whose job was to make the argument in favor of canonization. The office was established in 1587 during the reign of Pope Sixtus V and was abolished by Pope John Paul II in 1983. This abolition streamlined the canonization process considerably, helping John Paul II to usher in an unprecedented number of elevations: nearly 500 individuals were canonized and over 1,300 were beatified during his tenure as Pope as compared to only 98 canonizations by all his 20th-century predecessors.

Islam

It is the second-largest religion in the world today, with an estimated 1.4 billion adherents.

When a character makes the actors "aware" that they are being watched by an audience.

The term originated from Bertolt Brecht's theory of "epic theatre" that he developed from (and in contrast to) Konstantin Stanislavski's drama theory. Most often, the fourth wall is broken through a character directly addressing the audience, although the same effect can be achieved by breaking character, through dialogue, or by the characters interacting with objects outside the context of the work (e.g. a character is handed a prop by a stage hand).

Viscount

They are Clogs or A type of shoe or sandal made predominantly out of wood.

A walking stick

'Penang Lawyer' was made famous by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his book 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. It is made of a fine thick piece of wood, and is bulbous-headed and was just such a stick the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry – exuding dignity, solidity and reassurance.

Who is this artist who went through a 'Blue Period' and a 'Rose Period'?

Pablo Picasso

Temple of Dendur

The temple was removed from its original site (modern name: Dendur, ancient name: Tuzis, about 80 kilometers south of the town of Aswan) in 1963 in order to save it from being submerged by the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Seal

The legend apparently originated on the Orkney Islands, where selch or selk(ie) is the Scots word for seal. Selkies are able to transform to human form by shedding their seal skins and can revert to seal form by putting their selkie skin back on. Stories concerning selkies are generally romantic tragedies. Sometimes the human will not know that their lover is a selkie, and wakes to find them gone. Other times the human will hide the selkie's skin, thus preventing them from returning to seal form.

The blood type theory of personality

The theory is a belief that a person's blood type is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others, similar to the Western world's astrology. This belief has carried over to some extent in other parts of East Asia such as South Korea and Taiwan. This theory is completely dismissed by many scientists as superstition or pseudoscience.

A serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

Keffiyeh

The keffiyeh is almost always of white cotton cloth, but many have a checkered pattern in red or black stitched into them. The plain, white keffiyeh is most popular in the Gulf states, almost excluding any other style in Kuwait and Bahrain. The keffiyeh also became a trademark symbol of Yasser Arafat, who was rarely seen without his peculiarly arranged black-and-white scarf.

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

His work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting, and The Birth of Venus and Primavera rank now among the most familiar masterpieces of Florentine art.

The Bikini from Bikini Atoll

The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946.

Fauvism

The paintings of the Fauves were characterised by seemingly wild brush work and strident colours, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction.

The Swiss Guard

They are Swiss mercenary soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards and palace guards at foreign European courts from the late 15th century until the present day (in the form of the Papal Swiss Guard). They have generally had a high reputation for discipline and loyalty to their employers.

Limey

Shouting 'Geronimo' during jumps.

Nihilism

Nihilism is often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche, though Nietzsche explicitly repudiated it. Another prominent philosopher who has written on the subject is Martin Heidegger who argued that "[the term] nihilism has a very specific meaning. What remains unquestioned and forgotten in metaphysics is being; and hence, it is nihilistic."

A strikebreaker

Blackleg Miner is a 19th Century English folk song and the lyrics depict the aggressive stance against strikebreakers adopted by collectivised strikers - the term blackleg being an older word for scab. The UK miners' strike (1984-1985) saw striking miners using the song to intimidate those who continued to work.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923 – 1997)

His work borrowed heavily from popular advertising and comic book styles, which he himself described as being "as artificial as possible".

Tithonus

In Kandy, Sri Lanka.

The relic has played an important role in the local politics since ancient times, it's believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country, which caused the ancient kings to protect it with great effort. Kandy was the capital of the Sinhalese Kings from 1592 to 1815, fortified by the terrain of the mountains and the difficult approach. The city is a world heritage site declared by UNESCO, in part due to the temple.

The Amber Room

The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Nazi Germany and brought to Konigsberg. Knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the war. Its fate remains a mystery, and the search continues. A reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated in 2003 in the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_room)

Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

Her modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her arguably the most important figure in the history of 20th-century fashion.

A Baron

An English Peerage baron is entitled to a coronet bearing six silver balls (or pearls) around the rim. The actual coronet is mostly worn on certain ceremonial occasions, but a baron can bear his coronet of rank on his coat of arms above the shield.

Premature Burial

The Persistence of Memory

It is quite possibly the most famous painting by artist Salvador Dalí and it is currently displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where it has been since 1934.

Cabrini-Green

Scientology

Scientology is said to offer "an exact methodology" to help humans achieve awareness of their spiritual existence across many lifetimes and, simultaneously, to become more effective in the physical world.

It is the direction that should be faced when praying.

The qibla, for any point of reference on the Earth, is the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.

Red Herring

The strong smell of kippers would leave a strong trail on the ground which could be used for training hounds or creating a distraction. The Oxford English Dictionary records its first written use occurring in 1686 in this context: "To draw a red herring across the track".

Egypt

The eagle as a symbol of Saladin is disputed by archeologists.

Scrimshaw

It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of Sperm Whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses. It takes the form of elaborate carvings in the form of pictures and lettering on the surface of the bone or tooth, with the engravings highlighted using a pigment, or small sculptures made from the same material. The making of scrimshaw began on whaling ships between 1817 to 1824 on the Pacific Ocean, and survived until the ban on commercial whaling.

Indian giver

Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering his great poem

More than any other Rodin sculpture, The Thinker moved into the popular imagination, as an immediately recognizable icon of intellectual activity; consequently it has been subject to endless satirical use.

An individual who has bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.

The causes of stigmata are the subject of considerable debate. Some contend that they are miraculous, while others argue they are hoaxes or can be explained medically. Stigmata are primarily associated with the Roman Catholic faith.

Tajitu

The term Taijitu itself refers to any of several schematic diagrams representing these principles.

Toby mugs

De Stijl

Proponents of De Stijl sought to express a new utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order. They advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour; they simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions, and used only primary colors along with black and white.

Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley was originally a specific place, West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan but its end is unclear.

Aborigines of Australia

The Rainbow Serpent is seen as the inhabitant of permanent waterholes and is in control of life's most precious resource, water. Dreamtime stories tell of the great Spirits during creation, in animal and human form they molded the barren and featureless earth. The Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges, mountains and gorges as it pushed upward.

Bishaa

If the person undergoing the ritual is found to have a scarred or burnt tongue, it is concluded that he was lying. It is the best-known of various trials by ordeal which are practiced by the Bedouin, which are now dying out.

The Centaurs

This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, and as the embodiment of untamed nature.

Extra-sensory perception (ESP), most often clairvoyance.

Perceptual psychologist Karl Zener designed the cards in the early 1930s for experiments conducted with his colleague, parapsychologist J. B. Rhine.

The Ibis

The Sacred Ibis was also an object of religious veneration in ancient Egypt, particularly associated with the god, Thoth.

Craquelure

The precise pattern of craquelure depends upon where the picture was painted. There appear to be distinct French, Italian and Dutch "styles" of craquelure. Craquelure can furnish a record of the environmental conditions the painting has experienced during its lifetime, and also can reveal details about the painting's history of handling, transportation, and restoration.

Marcel Duchamp

Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman.

Popeye

However Popeye has pronounced muscles of the forearm, not of the biceps.

Thursday, from Thor

Thor was very much the favorite deity of ancient Scandinavians.

Pearl (for June)

Number Four

This is because the Chinese word for 4 sounds nearly the same as the word for death. Mobile telephone numbers with 4 in them sell for less and some buildings even skip level four, labeling it the 5th floor instead. One of the Japanese words for 4, shi, is also homonymous with the kanji in the word for death, shi of shinu. In Korea, number '4' is pronounced as sa and is homonymous with the word for death. Some, but not all, Korean buildings have the fourth floor written as 'F' floor.

A mummmy

The Four sons of Horus were a group of four gods in Egyptian religion, who were essentially the personifications of the four canopic jars, which accompanied mummified bodies. Since the heart was thought to embody the soul, it was left inside the body. The brain was thought only to be the origin of mucus, so it was reduced to liquid, syphoned off, and discarded. This left the stomach (and small intestines), liver, large intestines, and lungs, which were removed, embalmed and stored, each organ in its own jar. There were times when embalmers deviated from this scheme: during the 21st Dynasty they embalmed and wrapped the viscera and returned them to the body, while the Canopic jars remained empty symbols.

Aglaophotis

References to Aglaophotis are also present in Konami's video game series 'Silent Hill'. In the game, it is used to expel demons and the like from the bodies of possessed individuals.

Hell/Underworld

Manneken Pis ("little man piss" in English)

There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfried II of Brabant. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke. The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung it in a tree, to encourage them. From there, he urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.

Westermarck effect

It was first formally described by anthropologist Edvard Westermarck. The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Chinese Shim-pua marriage customs, as well as in biological-related families. Freud argued that as children, members of the same family naturally lust for one another, making it necessary for societies to create incest taboos, but Westermarck argued the reverse, that the taboos themselves arise naturally as products of innate attitudes.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology))

Shambhala (also spelled Shambala or Shamballa)

It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Kalachakra Tantra and the ancient texts of the Zhang Zhung culture which pre-dated Tibetan Buddhism in western Tibet.

Cubism

Analytic cubists "analyzed" natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane. Colour was almost non-existent except for the use of a monochromatic scheme that often included grey, blue and ochre. Synthetic Cubism was the second main branch of Cubism developed by Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris and others between 1912 and 1919. It was seen as the first time that collage had been made as a fine art work.

Forget-me-not

Other stories exist, but are even less plausible. Nowadays the common Forget Me Not symbolizes true love, and is prized as a garden flower as well as a wildflower. Forget Me Not is the State Flower of Alaska.

Equador

They are made from the plaited leaves of the panama-hat palm. The Ecuadorian town of Cuenca is the main producer; however, the town of Montecristi has the reputation of producing the finest quality hats. Glorified during the 19th century, the panama has since been considered the prince of straw hats.

Finland

There are five million inhabitants and over two million saunas in Finland - an average of one per household. Saunas are an integral part of the way of life in Finland. They are found everywhere: on the shores of Finland's numerous lakes, in private apartments, corporate headquarters, and even from the depths of 1400m (Pyhäsalmi Mine) or the Parliament.

American Gothic

It is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art. Wood wanted to depict the traditional roles of men and women as the man is holding a pitchfork symbolizing hand labor. Wood referenced late 19th century photography and posed his sitters in a manner reminiscent of early American portraiture.

Druids

The Druids were polytheists, but also revered elements of nature, such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, looking to them for "signs and seasons". They also venerated other natural elements, such as the oak, certain groves of trees, tops of hills, streams, lakes and even plants, especially mistletoe and holly. Fire was regarded as a symbol of several divinities and was associated with the sun and cleansing.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

It is a testament to the gunfight's impact on the US national psyche that numerous dramatic, fictional, and documentary works have been produced about or referencing this event over the decades.