Apologies

Irani clerics must train for equanimity like CIA spies. Every photo of Hassan Rouhani is nearly the exact same unemotional stoic visage held resolutely as if fixed permanently, and that's no fun at all. Whereas searching photos of Trump by sharp contrast reveals a broad range of facial expressions. It's all right there in search images. His face is nearly so plastic as Nigel Farange's whose face is like rubber and both of those guys are very facially expressive. They're both perfect for Photoshopping. It's irresistible. Hassan Rouhani is not. What a drag that must be to have such a sour deadpan for president, over and over and over, like some kind of born king.

It must be like living in Timbuktu except a lot worse.

Last night I did a crossword that had for a clue, "the country of Timbutu." I thought Timbuktu was the name of a made up country signifying some place with a funny name remote where nobody actually goes. The answer turns out to be Mali. I looked in images to see what the place looks like. Turns out people actually do go there. But not many. All the images show the exact same thing. A mud brick pyramid with wooden sticks poking through. Like the wood beams of American Southwest stucco ceilings. Except these are the height of a goat, making the pyramid seem taller than it actually is. That's the only building of note in all of Timbuktu.

Google Earth shows one road going through the place. So remote, so vacant, that street view is unavailable. Apparently a one-time camel caravan intersection. Photographs are available and they all show the same thing. The same building, and others similar but smaller, brick huts, and poverty that is abject. The photos of markets are  one person with blanket spread out and bowls of small squash and bags of beans. The only decorative elements are hinges on heavy wooden doors. A memorial to martyrs of independence goes untended in the blazing sun. The only animals are goats.

And Iran is hardly better. Their scenery is a lot nicer, nature is kinder,  but the entire population lacks imagination to do anything with it. Their society does not allow imagination, far less invite it. They can do only one thing and that's make religious war. Just as Timbuktu, all the mud that they have goes into the the making of mosques.

Then in the middle of all the dried mud are fantastically bright textiles. Where do they even get all that fabric for such abundant clothing? Entire bolt for a single garment. It doesn't match everything else. And then I wonder, they probably wear the same thing all week. All month. It's not like they can toss it into the washing machine. It's not like they shower everyday. It's not like they have twenty different outfits. This is unbelievable poverty.

You can learn a lot by pictures. The images in Firefox, in Brave, Google images, the photographs uploaded to Google Earth that fairly pinpoint the sites, and photo collections in places like Flickr. By way of comparison try both Timbuktu and Iran. The exercise is depressing. They're both rather like ancient Egypt. As civilizations they have not come very far.

Let me touch your luxurious beard. That is magnificent. It's perfect. It's like it's held on with a strap. You are the picture of health. It must be all that hummus.