Make It STOP!

Jehoshaphat. It's snowing again.

The last storm, while leaving large and plentiful patches of ice, also left thick and crusty snow, which was easy to walk on. What we're getting now is powder - and it's concealing all those treacherous patches of ice. Just now, getting the paper, I stepped on two of them. I caught myself the first time, but the second sent my foot skidding into a corner of the garage. (External, and therefore rather sharp, corner, that is. Briefly painful, but there doesn't seem to be any bruising or abrasion, fortunately.)

Spring can't come soon enough. (The current music is apropos....)

Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire

I've been interested in Persian/Iranian history ever since I read about Shah Ismail I in Toynbee. I have as many books on the subject as I do on the history of any non-Western society. Until now, though, I haven't had a source on Ismail himself and his successors. Safavid Iran, by Andrew J. Newman, is that source. A few words of review are under the cut.

( Balancing Act )