Category: Mickey Friedman

Death

By Mickey Friedman February 8, 2018 Perhaps because my beginning was so profoundly touched by death – the grave illness and death of my younger brother Jonathan before I was three – and the deep grief of my parents, I…

The Great Dying Two

By Mickey Friedman December 11, 2017 It was called “The Great Dying.” Peter Brannen described it in the New York Times: “The planet’s most profound catastrophe struck 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, killing 90…

The Smith and The Wesson World

November 28, 2017 By Mickey Friedman There is a deep black hole into which words about automatic weapons fall. You can thank Justice Scalia and his logic defying linguistic analysis for expanding the Second Amendment’s well-regulated militia’s musket defense of…

They Come and Go

By Mickey Friedman July 24, 2017 Friends say they increasingly avoid Great Barrington. There’s less and less for them here. Losing Martin’s reminds me when folks gathered there, at Melvin’s, or ordered breakfast from Ruth at The Cricket. Once Frankie…

If The Shoe Fits

By Mickey Friedman July 7, 2017 What I know about women’s fashion you can cram into a walnut. So, I’m probably not the best critic when it comes to evaluating what Ivanka Trump has to offer the women of the…

Putin v Penguins

By Mickey Friedman May 25, 2017 It’s not just John Podesta and the Dems. Or the French who’ve been hacked. Putin is after my penguin friends. For months, the website of Penguins United has been targeted. Hackers are trying an…

Me/We and the EPA

By Mickey Friedman May 12, 2017 I first met the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1990s. Glad to see them because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was doing a lousy job with GE and PCBs. The EPA had the power…

PIP

January 22, 2017 By Mickey Friedman PIP has come to town. Not the Pip of Charles Dickens, though hopefully this PIP is indeed a sign of great expectations. PIP is the formal public involvement process for the toxic waste site…

The Trump Test

By Mickey Friedman December 29, 2016 Bewail and bemoan. Because you are more virtuous than those, insert here whatever variation of deplorable you prefer, who voted for that … With their explosions of righteous indignation, you’d imagine these vociferous critics…

Maybe Mushrooms Are Magic

By Mickey Friedman December 15, 2016 I have watched people I love suffer not only life-threatening cancers but the depression and anxiety that accompanies cancer. My mother descended into a paranoid hell as her cancer metastasized and spread to her…

Deplorable

By Mickey Friedman December 1, 2016 Those who weren’t listening are forced to hear; those who wouldn’t see to see. And surprise, surprise they are not happy. Blame the FBI. Or those racist, sexist, gay-bashing everybody-elses who are now everywhere.…

11/11

By Mickey Friedman November 18, 2016 I have three friends who served in Afghanistan and Iraq: Christa, John, and Rich. Rich, unbeknownst to many in our community, served multiple tours, risking his life continuously flying into combat zones to rescue…