December 1, 2012 By Mickey Friedman Ignore the gossip-mongers: the mission remains critical. We’ve invested so much making Afghanistan safe for Hamid Karzai and his drug-running relatives, it would be a crying shame to cut and run. Just because our…
Category: Mickey Friedman
The Real Heroes
November 22, 2012 By Mickey Friedman I was fifteen but looked more like twelve. Frightened, but determined. My local Woolworth’s was on Fordham Road. My sign said something about equal rights. The Greensboro, NC sit-in of February 1960 was a…
My Dinner With Mel
November 18, 2012 By Mickey Friedman Mel Greenberg invited me to have dinner with him Thursday evening. At the American Legion Hall in Sheffield. I must have been daydreaming because I drove right past it, through Sheffield and then had…
The Best Town Manager We Ever Had
October 22, 2012 By Mickey Friedman Like icebergs, only a small portion of what goes on in a small town is visible. So much of what really happens, happens beneath the surface. The Great Barrington Selectboard finally acted on what…
The River: It Ain’t Over
October 2, 2012 By Mickey Friedman A loyal reader admonished me recently: “You haven’t written about the River in a while!” Sometimes thinking about the thirty year fight for a PCB cleanup makes me want to go to sleep for…
Hard Times High
August 25, 2012 By Mickey Friedman In the old days, doing nothing cost you nothing. And there was a big difference between doing nothing and doing something. Somehow, now, doing nothing costs forty-two million dollars. I know squat about building…
Four More Years
August 15, 2012 By Mickey Friedman I’m still shaken. Only my fellow Olympians understand what it’s like to train for four years and have your Olympic dreams shattered. I realize most people probably don’t even know about the event I’ve…
The Small Stuff
July 28, 2012 By Mickey Friedman I’m trying not to sweat the big stuff. Like the end of the world as we know it. I mean, if God wanted us to have arctic ice and antarctic penguins, he wouldn’t have…
The More Things Change, The More Things Change
July 14, 2012 By Mickey Friedman It’s hard to knock the French. What with their incredible baguettes and that nifty decision to call potatoes the apples of the earth. But they got it wrong when it comes to change. From…
I’m Bringing It Home
June 21, 2012 By Mickey Friedman I’m bringing it home. That’s what Bob calls finishing the song or the gig. I’ve been doing what I said I wouldn’t ever do again. Making a film. When my friend Beth began her…
Going, going, gone
June 7, 2012 By Mickey Friedman Things are different since Vladimir left. Now when I rant, mutter, or converse in more measured tones, there’s nobody listening. Vladimir responded in his own unique Quaker Parrot way and most of it went…
Losing My Grip
May 19, 2012 By Mickey Friedman Do you remember when people would say “he’s losing his grip on reality” about someone who seemed not quite there? When an expert on something or other would announce on TV that some adamant,…