by Matthew Friedman | Feb 24, 2021 | Commentary, Editorial
This week began with the news that the United States had surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 deaths. It seemed surreal, almost uncanny; the figure was just another mundane number in the accounting we have watched ticking off steadily – and then exponentially – over the last...
by Matthew Friedman | Jan 1, 2020 | Commentary, Editorial
Do you remember when 2016 was “the worst year ever,” and we looked forward to the possibilities offered by 2017? Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, and Carrie Fisher all died in 2016, in what seemed like quick succession. It was an incalculable loss...
by Matthew Friedman | Nov 22, 2019 | Commentary, Editorial, Satire
Good sense seems to be breaking out all over in the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Elizabeth Warren has shown her political acumen and practicality by backing-off from her previously-held Medicare-for-All position this week. Pete Buttigieg, who...
by Matthew Friedman | Aug 4, 2019 | Commentary, Editorial
I saw the headline on my phone’s home screen as we made our way to the Loop (Chicago’s downtown) for an early al-fresco dinner on the Riverwalk, and a concert at Harris Theater in Millennium Park. I read “Multiple Victims in El Paso Shooting,” and did not read...
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 24, 2019 | Commentary, Editorial
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the...
by Matthew Friedman | May 15, 2019 | Commentary, Editorial
“May you live in interesting times:” it is a benediction and a curse. These are disorienting times, of casual injustice, alternative facts, and “no collusion.” And in the gloaming twilight of our planet – so preventable, yet increasingly inevitable – we have arrived...
