I'm John Batson with George Friedman, the founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures,

a subscription site.

And George blesses us with an essay about the education of George Friedman.

Once upon a time he was hauling books at the, what I picture you in the book room of

the Manhattan Central Library, a place where we've all spent time waiting for my bookstool

arrived from downstairs in the catacombs.

And that was the basis for your education.

How did it happen, George?

Well, I was living in a Bronx.

I didn't have much money, but I found a job in the children's room of the library, the

European Library.

And the head of that woman called Mary Chimino came to me and they said, where am I going

to college?

And I was an immigrant.

I really didn't know how many of this worked and I said, I'm not going to college, I don't

have the money.

And she looked at me and said, you go to CCNY, it's free.

I said, I was very surprised that she said, have you had your SATs?

And she said, what's an SAT?

So what she did was, she got me the SAT things and the forms that she actually paid for

my test.

And I took the test and I did fairly well and I had decent grades in school and I got

...