Peter Richmond's love for professional football the-way-it-used-to-be is clear from the books he writes. Last year, he co-wrote with Frank Gifford The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever, which made The New York Times best-seller list. Now, he's written a book about the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s before "the modern transition of pro football from the mud-and-lunchpail era to our new time, when the game is nothing more than Televised High Entertainment." Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders has just been published by HarperCollins. “Richmond’s book is a treasure trove of uproarious anecdotes skillfully woven into a seasonal chronicle spiced with sharp player profiles," says Library Journal. "This rollicking read reminds us that football is a game that’s meant to be played hard—and to be fun."
Richmond is a fun guy himself. A graduate of Yale who was a longtime staff writer at GQ, he has written several books, inlcuding Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee, the only biography on the legendary singer. Last summer, he interviewed Lombardi playwright Eric Simonson for RI, and he's currently developing a musical about the NFL. Richmond's a natural raconteur and he can often be found in animated conversation at Irving Farm Coffee House, Little Gates Wine Shop, Terni's or the Millerton Farmers' Market. He will be reading from Badasses at Oblong Books & Music in Millerton on Sunday, September 26 at 4 p.m., but he may be a little late if the Giants game against the Tennessee Titans (which begins at 1 p.m.) goes into overtime. 1. How did you end up in Millerton? We were living in an old farmhouse west of the Catskills when I was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, which meant several weekend drives on mind-numbing interstates between Cambridge and upstate New York. So we took to exploring off the beaten path on our long commutes, stumbled on the village, and immediately took to its vibe—and, in 1995, its housing prices. We bought our old crumbling manse in the heart of the village. We liked the idea of being in a town where if you drove to the train station you had to allow time for having to stop for cows crossing the road. 2. What's your favorite way to spend a Friday night? Playing poker with old friends (in games where you can’t lose more than $10 even you’re as bad at it as I am.)
3. What's your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning? Reading the Sunday Times to the chickens; reading the Book Review and getting depressed that someone I know got a good review for a book I should have thought of writing; alleviating the depression by cooking an omelette with vegetables from the garden and bread baked by a friend, and waiting for the Giants game to start. 4. Where's your favorite spot for bargain hunting? For stuff: Antique row on Route 7 in Sheffield. For food: the Mexican grocery store on Route 22 north of Amenia. For clothes: Saperstein’s in Millerton. 5. Where do you go for a self indulgent splurge?No. 9 Restaurantin Millerton or Bizen in Great Barrington. Little-Gates Wine in Millerton for a bottle of Larkmead cabernet on the day the check from the publisher arrives. And occasionally, the train from Hudson to Montreal, along Lake Champlain in the dead of winter.
6. What's your favorite one-hour drive from your house? From Salisbury, CT, north to South Egremont, MA, on Route 41—astounding views and perfectly choreographed shaggy cattle—and then on up to Pittsfield. 7. What's your favorite historical site?Melville’s House in Pittsfield, which looks like a completely anonymous, small 19th-century home—until you stand at the desk where he wrote Moby Dick, and then the ghosts begin to swarm (even if Mt. Greylock looks nothing like a whale from his porch).
8. What three things do you always do with house guests? 1. Take them to Simmons Way Village Inn to book a room. 2. The next morning, take them to Phil Terni’s general store so they can step into the year 1919. The first time I met Phil in 1995, I went in and said I was looking for a gift for my wife. He said, “Something in the way of a shotgun, perhaps?” 3. Take them to HunterBee, our amazing, unique, antique/whatever store. It’s Hudson Row with a sense of humor. 9. What's your favorite bookstore or bookstores?Berkshire Book Company, Sheffield, whose astounding inventory gives me ideas for books; Darren Winston Booksellers in Sharon, which features every great book, first-edition mint-condition, that I never got around to reading; Oblong Books in Millerton, because of the wooden floors; Johnnycake Books in Salisbury for Dan Dwyer’s amazing architecture selections. 10. What's your favorite hardware store and/or garden center? Herrington’s in Millerton for hardware because for some reason The Cars always seem to be playing on the radio station; for things that grow, Enchanted Garden Nursery in Rock Tavern. 11. Where do you shop for clothes? Do you have a favorite salesperson? Phil Terni’s for the Pendleton shirts, where Phil is the only salesperson, and never tries to sell you anything except shotguns.
12. Who do you trust to recommend wines? My wife, Melissa Davis (photo), who manages Little Gates Wine in Millerton. She doesn’t care about how much rain fell in the southern Loire in the spring of 2003; she cares if the stuff tastes good. When she’s pouring at tastings, she says things like, “you’ll love the aftertaste of cat pee in this pinot,” and “just a delightful hint of diesel oil, don’t you think?” 13. Who are your local heroes?Jill Clayburgh, Meryl Streep, Don Hastings (he just retired from a 50-year run on As The World Turns), Simon Winchester, Rachel Maddow and all the kids I direct in the plays and musicals every year at Indian Mountain School in Lakeville. 14. What newspapers or blogs do you read every day? The Times website, the Newark-Star Ledger website (for New York Giants news), RI, Davidkamp.com, Drudgereport.com, Phish.com. 15. Where and when do you write? At all and unpredictable hours at a desk planted in the upstairs hallway with a view of my wife’s amazing gardens; at the Hotchkiss School library until I’m drawn to their leather-bound collection of every New Yorker ever printed, which more or less stops the writing in its tracks. And on magazine subscription cards, envelopes and receipts on the bedside table, if I wake up at 3 a.m., but I can’t read the notes the next morning.
16. Where's your favorite place for breakfast? Riga Mountain Roast in Salisbury, the breakfast-sandwich stand at the Millerton Farmers Market, or on the bench next to the chicken coop in the backyard (we share the granola). 17. Where's your favorite place for live performance? Anywhere Phish is performing. 18. What are your favorite professional sports teams? The New York Giants, the Charleston (S.C. ) Riverdogs and Brockton (MA) Rox, owned by my friend Mike Veeck, and Pandora’s Pin-ups, a female roller derby team in Manchester, New Hampshire. 19. What’s your favorite small-town tradition in Millerton? Buying the Sunday Times at Terni’s at about 9:30, when the old locals gather to lean on the marble counter and complain for a half hour about how Millerton has changed before they all finally admit that that life could be a lot worse, except for the invention of the cellphone. 20. What are you most looking forward to doing this fall? Directing Guys and Dolls at Indian Mountain (except that if more boys don’t try out, it’ll be Dolls and Guys); watching my maples turn orange, carving the pumpkin for the porch on Halloween, which, in the village of Millerton, is like a Twilight-Zone timewarp back to when villages were places where kids could roam free and no one even smashes my carefully carved pumpkin.
