[HN Gopher] It's Their Mona Lisa
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       It's Their Mona Lisa
        
       Author : ramimac
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2026-03-18 12:53 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ironicsans.ghost.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ironicsans.ghost.io)
        
       | ashwinnair99 wrote:
       | Every culture has that one thing outsiders reduce to a joke or a
       | meme. Rarely bothers to ask why it matters to the people it
       | actually belongs to.
        
       | ayaros wrote:
       | What is the _Mona Lisa_ of Hacker News?
        
         | thelibrarian wrote:
         | Colin Percival (cperciva), upon being dismissed due to never
         | having won a prestigious mathematical award such as a Putnam
         | fellowship, revealing that he had in fact won a Putnam
         | fellowship in 1999.
        
         | argee wrote:
         | Based on TFA, nothing. Since no has quoted anything as such.
         | So, allow me.
         | 
         | This [0] is the Mona Lisa of Hacker News. (Most favorited post
         | circa 2020, though now that would likely be something else.)
         | 
         | [0] https://jgthms.com/web-design-in-4-minutes/
        
           | zem wrote:
           | that's a lovely post, and I missed it when it came out, so
           | thanks for that! but based on the logic in TFA I think an
           | admin would have to make the claim for it to count.
        
             | argee wrote:
             | TFA has curator quotes, the users are largely the curators
             | of HN, so it should work! I can't imagine the mods ever
             | saying anything like that. Maybe someone like pg would.
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | The guy who dismissed Dropbox.
        
           | wiether wrote:
           | Yes!
        
         | fooker wrote:
         | Has to be the dropbox comment
        
           | ErroneousBosh wrote:
           | What was the dropbox comment?
        
             | nom wrote:
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
        
               | ErroneousBosh wrote:
               | Yeesh.
               | 
               | > It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating
               | 
               | Yeah because that should be the end goal of everything
               | right?
               | 
               | And from the response:
               | 
               | > 1. re: the first part, many people want something plug
               | and play. and even if they were plug and play, the
               | problem is that the user experience (on windows at least)
               | with online drives generally sucks, and you don't have
               | disconnected access.
               | 
               | Bingo. I _am_ a really quite experienced Linux user (I
               | 've been using it since it came on two floppy disks and
               | didn't really work) and I too want things that are just
               | plug-and-play. Time spent dicking about making things
               | work is time not spend doing something fun, although I
               | get that for some folk their goal in using Linux is to
               | "Be Using Linux". For most of us I suspect that extends
               | out to "Be Using Linux to solve problems we actually
               | have, not just be using Linux for the sake of it".
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | I thought I saw "woman with a polecat" in the SF legion of honour
       | gallery. Maybe it was on tour. (This is at least a decade ago and
       | possibly more)
        
       | petercooper wrote:
       | Upon seeing the entry for Marie-Antoinette's private theater, I
       | felt an urge to proclaim the _Amargosa Opera House_ as Death
       | Valley 's "Mona Lisa". I was lucky enough to get a private tour
       | and it was like stepping into one of the world's greatest works
       | of art in the most bizarre of locations. The pictures don't do it
       | justice but https://lenspire.zeiss.com/photo/en/article/mario-
       | basner-cap...
        
         | rawling wrote:
         | I think the (OP) article has screwed up here. The article, and
         | I think its original source, name a particular set from the
         | theater as the palace's Mona Lisa. But the article has a
         | picture of the theater itself, and even misnames the theater
         | after the set.
         | 
         | Tatler source: "This includes machinery that causes a tree to
         | rise from a trapdoor and three sets - a simple interior, a
         | forest and a temple of Minerva - the latter being the oldest
         | intact decor in the world, dating back to 1754 - 'our own Mona
         | Lisa,' said Masson."
         | 
         | OP article: "What is it? The Temple of Minerva theater set
         | (c.1754) from Marie-Antoinette's private theater."
         | 
         | OP caption on picture of theater: "Temple of Minerva theater
         | (c. 1754)"
        
       | amarcheschi wrote:
       | Well, in Florence there actually is a copy of the original Mona
       | Lisa. It's just that nobody knows about it. It's in the first
       | room of stibbert museum. I almost missed it
        
       | exmadscientist wrote:
       | Ah, Restoration Hardware. I've always thought the jwz quote
       | applies perfectly to them: if I have a home furnishing problem,
       | and I go to Restoration Hardware, now I have two problems. It's
       | not enough to have their stores full of stuff I don't want,
       | they've also got to turn them in to labyrinths too.
       | 
       | The Mob Museum was great though.
        
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