this had a good title. but my weblog software ate it.

this is really an variation of css rendering bug #717 from mark's list of safari bugs, but safari has a bug that prevents enclosed elements from inheriting the background color of their enclosing element. (at least: i haven't tried with an image.) here's an example which also shows how to work around the problem. (just adding a top-level i { background: inherit; } rule is also enough.)

in fact, adding a * { background: inherit; } rule fixes the problem, too. i wonder what the possible negative side-effects of that rule would be.

update: here's an even better explanation and test of the problem.

another update: the v60 version of safari, released february 12, does not fix this bug.