In Iran, 4: Underground
For earlier notes on our Iran tour, see Iran 1: Ten days in Iran, 2: The empire at the center of the world and 3: Imam Khomeini blinks? Monday, September 10, was our group’s 4th day in Iran, the day to board the bus for a three-hour trip south from Tehran to the much smaller … read more »
The thanks of a God-fearing atheist
In Spain, where I live, today is the day of Saint Cecilia — ¡ Muchas felicidades a todas las Cecilias y los Cecilios ! *— but back in the USA where I was born and raised it is, as you have probably heard, Thanksgiving. A time to give thanks for all the good things in … read more »
In Iran, 3: Imam Khomeini blinks?
Besides archaeology (see previous note), our busy second day in Tehran, Saturday, September 8, had included the Glass and Ceramic Museum (link below) and the Crown Jewels, safely ensconced in the Central Bank. See the link below for a ten-minute video of its treasures (it takes a few minutes to download), with an entertaining and … read more »
In Iran, 2: The empire at the center of the world
It has now been seven weeks since our return from Iran, and relations between that country and my homeland, the USA, have become even more histrionic. I can’t pretend to know what President Trump thinks about the country, or if he does (I rather doubt it), but his advisers appear to expect the Islamic Republic … read more »
Ten days in Iran: 1
From September 7-17, Susana and I were part of a 12-person tour of Iran organized by The Nation magazine, from Tehran to Kashan to Isfahan to Persepolis to Shiraz, in the company of an extraordinarily well-prepared and multilingual guide (Ali Sadrnia, the tall man in the back row of the photo of our group, taken … read more »