Little Gil in Slumberland

I get nice presents for my friends, but I have to admit that I save the best ones for myself. Last year, it was the seriotypes of women’s portraits by Lorenzo Mattotti. This time around, I got myself this hardbound collection of Little Nemo color comic strips printed at their original 16″ x 21″ Sunday paper size. It’s a thing of beauty.

Iran

My (occasionally long-winded) buddy The Brooding Persian has a good post about the latest rant from Iran’s president:

What we’ve got now—and I mean the Iranian nation, our neighbours and the broader global community—with this witches brew of nativist authoritarianism, Shi’ia theology, Mr. Huntington’s creative profundities and a bit of second hand Carl Schmitt from-god-knows-where, coupled with belligerent adventurism of foreign powers–is what a nice lady once described long ago as the “devil’s cauldron.”

He also posts about some good news.

I haven’t seen TBP in a few years. We had tentative plans to get together this summer, but that was contingent on Iran and Israel qualifying for the World Cup. (I figure that’s about the only circumstance under which I’d visit Germany.) Unfortunately, the Israelis didn’t keep up their part of the bargain.