While in Athens, I have gotten into the habit of ending the day by enjoying an iced coffee with cream in an outdoor cafe in a park about one mile from my hotel. It is there that I have been writing these dispatches.
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15 Jul 2015 - 9:05pm
Tonight the streets belonged to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Well OK, that’s an exaggeration. The streets in and around Syntagma Square belonged to it. Syntagma is where the Greek parliament is located.
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15 Jul 2015 - 2:28pm
Newspapers and television news in the United States and Europe have done an excellent job explaining the crisis in Greece. The Greek people were borrowing money so they could live above their means, and now the debt has come due.
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14 Jul 2015 - 5:19pm
Today I had dinner with an American friend in Exarcheia. Nothing remotely similar to Exarcheia exists in the United States. It is widely known as the "anarchist district" of Athens.
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14 Jul 2015 - 12:07am
Up here in Boston, just days ahead of July 4th, someone hit Christopher Columbus with a big bucket of blood.
Or what looked like blood.
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13 Jul 2015 - 4:54pm
Today I had the longest conversation I've had so far with a Greek - an 18 year-old bartender at my hotel. At least he claimed to be 18. I told him he looked 16 and then asked him to guess my age. He said 14. He told me I looked young, with a broad smile on his face.
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13 Jul 2015 - 11:50am
I’ve had to swallow a bitter pill today. If the news reports are correct, Tsipris has sold out. With one or two “face-saving” modifications, he’s accepted Germany’s terms for a bailout.
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12 Jul 2015 - 9:48pm
Athens is a Mediterranean city. The days are hot and the evenings pleasant. Like Madrid, people are up all hours of the night. I took a walk today from 10:00 to 11:30 PM, and was never alone on the street.
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11 Jul 2015 - 6:02pm
I'm in Athens alone. I don't know anyone in the city and the people I do know are two hours away. I won't see them for another day. It's strange observing people whose language you don't speak. Every Greek I've asked, "Do you speak English" has replied "Yes" with a big smile on his or her face.
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6 Jul 2015 - 1:02pm
After some preliminary discussions with Chris Faraone and John Loftus, I am pleased to announce that I will be joining the leadership team of the new Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism as Netw
