Freedom Fries --- introduction

Freedom Fries, yes, how about the Freedom Fries. The term came into being in the spring of 2003, when President Jaques Chirac of France refused to join George W. Bush in his attack on Iraq (the second Gulf War), and Representative Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, directed the three canteens of the US House of Representatives to rename French fries to "freedom fries."

 US House of Representatives member Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio),
announcing the renaming of French fries to Freedom Fries in 2003. 

When Michael decided to write a script about the aftermath of the Bush years, he used the Freedom Fries reminiscence as a trigger for a change of heart of (or in) the former president---with predictably unpredictable consequences for him and a few other people.

Michael finished the script quickly but couldn't get it produced. So he decided to turn it into a novel. The manuscript is still unfinished because (1) he developed second thoughts about the libel-legal feasibility of the whole thing (the main characters do fairly funny things) and (2) he started to work on a new novel, Green Eyes.

Most of the available Freedom Fries draft was published on this blog. All FF posts were removed a month ago when Michael decided to revamp this blog as a platform for the Green Eyes.

But we are having second thoughts now, whence the decision to re-introduce the Freedom Fries in a new changed format, with longer fragments posted occasionally.

Here's the first installment.