I mentioned the other day that I needed to get out more often, and it strikes me that anyone reading this blog (assuming there is anyone) might have taken that as a hopeful sign that the photos would get more exciting. I apologise to anyone who might have been so misled.

This is the back of a fancy men's clothing store. Anyone who knows me will realize that I had no interest in going around front of, let alone actually into, the store, despite the fact that it is indeed Sunday.

However, just down the street from this store, the bookstore was also open. Now that's a happy thing. I picked up an Iranian novel, "My Uncle Napoleon". In Iran, since the novel was published, the term "Uncle Napoleon" has come to indicate someone who insists on seeing a foreign plot in everything bad that happens there. The character named Uncle Napoleon in the novel beieved it was the British (the novel takes place in the mid-2oth century). Obviously, the evil foreign hand now belongs to others. The paranoia, however, is the same.

It's depressing to think that most Iranians, like the majority of citizens in most countries, are just average folks wanting to live decent lives. Unfortunately, they're trapped in a regime run by lunatics.

The novel, by the way, isn't legally available in Iran. But you'd probably already guessed that.