Remembering Mike

From Oliver Mackson: I hesitate to throw a bucket of cold water on warm season's greetings, but I'm glad this year is over. It's been a tough one in Middletown. Pick your reason: It's been a tough year anyplace where people still put out a newspaper every day. Rupert Murdoch bought us and isn't saying where he'll flip us. But the big one is that we lost Mike Levine, way too soon, right smack at the beginning of the year, on Jan. 14. He was only 54.

You could pull up any column and see that he could do things with language, sense of place and a finely-honed sense of outrage, like when he scorched Mr. Mid-Hudson Power Broker himself:

The Times Herald-Record

THICK SKIN SHOULD COME WITH THE…