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Today I saw the most glorious manmade buildings I’ve ever laid eyes on. The city of Esfahan is famous for gorgeous mosques, miles of parks, ornate bridges, grand palaces and the most impressive is Naghsh-e-Jahan Square the world’s second largest to Beijing’s Tieneman Square. It’s the heart of the city […]

When I heard there was a place that sold lattes right down the street from the Armenian church in Esfahan, I hightailed it right over. And when Elham and his sister heard that I owned a cafe in the US, well that made it a day to celebrate! They refused […]

I woke up very early this morning, hours before my early wake-up call, and walked through a garden behind our hotel in Shiraz. I wanted to see the street, and meet some people before our massive convoy of 130 travel agents and tourism officials left for the airport. I walked […]

Where to begin? With the most important thing about Iran. It is this daily encounter, repeated endlessly. You meet someone’s eyes. They look at you, at your nametag. “You are American?”Yes you say. “Great, great, welcome, welcome to Iran!” This steadfast enthusiasm for American people is what makes this country […]

It was a long, long night, as I arrived at Tehran’s Khomeini airport at about 3 am and spent a few hours wrestling with various levels of authority to try and finish the visa business that I started last week. In the end, after fumbling with a fingerprint machine, the […]

I read today in the WSJ that utilities in the US have been jolted by a drop in power use, and it has dire implications for the future of alternative energy. That’s on top of massive problems getting financing that has put many solar and wind projects on hold. The […]

I checked the weather, first outside on the thermometer here at Cindy’s house in Holyoke. Just barely 20 degrees…then I saw that in Tehran it’s a balmy 63. So I guess there’s no need to bring that silk long underwear that helped out so well during our trip to Northern […]

I’ve got a whopping 18 hours of so before I get back into an aluminum tube for an extended stay in the air tomorrow night. I never sleep well onboard, despite the piles of gadgets I get sent to try out. One blow up tubular pillow extends up the shoulder, […]

My final morning in Hollywood found me out on the terrace, yakking into my cellphone about business and the opportunities which presented themselves out here at this remarkable show. Last night I attended the final party of the show, AOL’s Moonlight Bash, where a swish nightclub was transformed into a […]

We had lunch in the brilliant blinding Hollywood sunshine, on the roof next to an empty glistening pool. I sat next to a couple who worked for Phocuswright, and the conversation got around to my trip on Saturday to Iran. She said that in 1978 she was an exchange student, […]

What is a conference without a few high-class parties? True to Phocuswright form, last night I made my way up to the 20th floor to a party thrown by Pamela Johnston, who runs PJ Public relations in New York City. The job of an effective PR company, of course, is […]