While waiting for word from the Cultural Heritage Foundation and an update from Parliament, I headed to the oft-praised land of Kurdistan for an overnight trip, a city about 2 hours east of Kirkuk, Iraq. A musician friend with an unusually high pitched and studdered laugh had special ordered a Persian Oud four months back from a man in Kurdistan who makes handmade instruments.

We drove through Qasvin on the way west and as we passed through, I sorrowfully waved and said, “Bon voyage Charlie, have a wonderful trip!” ( I was thinking about Sandra in Herb Gardner’s A Thousand Clowns, as she waves off her imaginal friend Charlie from a New York city dock. I don’t know why. )

I then immediately thought about the moment the mayor of Qazvin placed flower wreaths around me and Tyler’s neck nearly 3 years back, while a crowd surrounding us chanted “Nuclear Energy Is Iran’s Obvious Right” and several quacking reporters fed us puffy top Donahue microphones for dinner. This was one of the more memorable days in our first attempt to run Iran.