St. Mark's and Panagia Erithiani church congregations perform “Rocket War” by firing thousands of home-made rockets across the sky during Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations in the town of Vrontados on the Greek island of Chios on April 19, 2014. Greek habit of throwing handmade rockets with the aim of hitting the bell tower of the church at the other side during the celebration of the service at midnight before Easter Sunday. (Photo by Cem Oksuz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

An Afghan Hound in the grooming tent at the 147th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in Queens, NY on May 8, 2023. (Photo by Peter Fisher for The Washington Post)

“Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Romain de Tirtoff (Erte) – “Symphony In Black” (please click to enlarge).

Two stags fight in a wildlife park in Aurach near Kitzbuehel, in the Austrian province of Tyrol. (Photo by Kerstin Joensson/Associated Press)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

People watch dragon dance performance in front of a business establishment in celebration of Chinese New Year at Manila's Chinatown district of Binondo, Philippines, Friday, January 31, 2014. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

Two men try to load their just purchased Samsung 55" TV into a car, at a Best Buy store in Fairfax, Virginia on November 26, 2015, on a Black Friday sale that started a day earlier during Thanksgiving evening. The US holiday shopping season kicks off with "Black Friday" – the day after the Thanksgiving holiday – with a frenzy expected at stores around the country as retailers slash prices. (Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP Photo)

South Korean actress singers Tiffany (R) and Seohyun react in front of an official camera on the red carpet during 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) in Hong Kong, China December 2, 2015. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)