Avery.Cassell

The front page of The Tehran Times today.

I grew up in Iran. It looks like the fire is flowing through jubes. Jubes are narrow channels that run alongside streets throughout towns and cities to provide water for numerous things. It's much bigger than just watering nearby trees.

Joon-am, I hope everyone remains safe. ❤️

With this amount of crap (and more) crammed into our heads every day it's a wonder we can sleep or make art!
SAVE Act
Detention centers
ICE
Epstein
Minnesota
Kansas
Iran massacre
War
HIV meds denied
Tariffs
High cost of living
Fishermen's boats
General SA

What they want is proof of citizenship, not just an ID. Most driver's licenses do not show that. MI, MN, NY, VT, and WA, offer enhanced driver’s licenses to serve as proof of ID & U.S. citizenship.

In 1970 when I had just turned 16, a British MP who was visiting Tehran suggested that I meet up with him and several of his stewardess friends in London to mess around. Thank goodness that I was so spooked that I declined. This is a hard world for girls.

This is how you make a woman; a pinch of forgotten memory combined with a goblet of danger. Stir with a barbed wire wisk. Add a cup of bitter misogyny (as if there's any other kind) and fold in the moonlight.

When I was barely 16, I had a 3-some with my bf and a British MP at the Tehran Hilton. He asked me to visit him when I was in London so we could have sex. It sounded dangerous, so I didn't meet up with him.

This shit with powerful men abusing girls has been going on for centuries.

A herd of resting sheep beneath a tree in the desert. Iran.

Memoir: I loved the smoky smell of burning dung cakes in the morning in Iranian villages. Roosters crowing and sheep bells ringing as they were herded down the road. Then flat bread, quince jam, compote, fried eggs, and tea for breakfast.

An intern
with the most
luxurious black armpit bush
that I swooned in wonder
when she raised her arm.

Lust isn't remarkable
but slides into our loins
sideways, like a three year old
laughing when we catch it.

Avery Cassell

Crushes

I have had crushes
through the years
mostly on
unexpected bits.

A teacher in 6th grade
named Lyon
who taxidermied cats.

An archeologist
with thick dark hair
on top
but sparkling blond leg hair,
plus she ate egg shells.

Memoir: I'm up to 1967 and we're moving to Iran for the second time. I'm not so sure why the current Epstein debacle is such a surprise. I could have told you that sexual abuse is rampant in the US.

This is fascinating. Librarians would be great at this.

I'm 71, queer, 40+ years sober, and was diagnosed with diabetes mid-December. The change in eating habits has been a bear for me, but between that and medication it's been working. So far, no exercise but I blame that on winter in Massachusetts. You can do it!

I'm writing one too. 71 and I don't understand it either. I was born in a hurricane.

A group of archeologists on a picnic at Hasanlu in Iran. People are relaxed. Black and white photo.

I'm finally working on my memoir again.

Next up is Shiraz and Tehran from 1967 to 1971, where I'll discuss archeological digs, suicidal thoughts, love, and marxists.

This is a worthwhile listen. Now I'm off to make curry and write.

Large piles of snow in a parking lot

The view from my window at work in Massachusetts. Boy, I miss the weather in San Francisco.

We muddle through
over objects blindly
stumble cold and lost.
Life is a clothesline
in the snow
piles of ice against the pole
don't lick it
your tongue will stick
pinkish livery flesh
clinging to the metal
one foot slipping
in the wet, the frozen
is it tundra or
just domestic carnage.

Same. Wrote one this morning.

I know Persian and that is not "Trump". That's all I'm saying. This is "Trump" ترامپ

That does not say "Trump" in Farsi. This may be AI.

It's only me and I don't eat much.
Cheese omelette with Canadian bacon
Pumpkin and chickpea curry
Chili

It's a good thing that I love to cook and am good at it!

Don't they remember SAVAK?

This is how we do it.

Both of my home countries are violently destroying themselves from the inside out. The reason why hardly matters; the ones in power are filled with greed, power, and anger. My heart is breaking.

I'm impressed. Tahdig is hard to make!

The cruelty is unthinkable. 💔

They are cruelly slaughtering them.