It's Their Mona Lisa

3/22/2026 at 7:57:48 PM

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.

by exmadscientist

3/22/2026 at 8:29:53 AM

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...

by petercooper

3/22/2026 at 9:07:15 AM

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)"

by rawling

3/22/2026 at 8:14:35 AM

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)

by ggm

3/22/2026 at 12:50:17 PM

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

by amarcheschi

3/22/2026 at 7:11:17 AM

What is the Mona Lisa of Hacker News?

by ayaros

3/22/2026 at 7:23:47 AM

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.

by thelibrarian

3/22/2026 at 7:27:15 AM

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/

by argee

3/22/2026 at 11:21:15 AM

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.

by zem

3/22/2026 at 11:36:51 AM

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.

by argee

3/22/2026 at 8:12:36 AM

Has to be the dropbox comment

by fooker

3/22/2026 at 10:40:26 AM

What was the dropbox comment?

by ErroneousBosh

3/22/2026 at 11:15:25 AM

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

by nom

3/22/2026 at 7:14:11 PM

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".

by ErroneousBosh

3/22/2026 at 7:35:53 AM

The guy who dismissed Dropbox.

by bitwize

3/22/2026 at 8:42:27 AM

Yes!

by wiether

3/22/2026 at 7:02:55 AM

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.

by ashwinnair99

3/22/2026 at 10:33:40 AM

[dead]

by algolint