At Dirtlease headquarters, the morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the smell of New Jersey in the air. In the break room, the bean bag chairs were occupied, the red lights were at their dimmest, and someone had taken all the fidget spinners from the bucket near the door. Sharp objects and …
When the thing happened, the Founder and Legal were drinking in a bar in northern New York called Media Res. The Founder was telling Legal about Mickey Mouse’s divorce. ‘So the judge says, ‘You say that your wife is crazy?’’ As he spoke, the Founder smirked. ‘’That is not what I said’, Mickey says’, the …
The Founder recently signed up for ketamine therapy. After the doctor administered the medication, handed the Founder a weighted eye-mask and put on some new-age music, he noticed that the doctor had a scowl, a strong nose, and a closely-trimmed beard. In his hand, the doctor held a cigar that he swore was really, truly …
When Dirtlease first bought its parks, the Founder would post long essays about galvanized water pipe and Orangeburg septic pipe. Galvanized pipe rusts and corrodes. Orangeburg, which is tar-infused cardboard, collapses. The posts were meditations on entropy, memory, perception, and the hidden nature of things. The way materials would degrade was a proxy for the …
Dirtlease recently called an all-hands meeting to discuss issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in our company. The meeting was precipitated by the delivery of a report by a team of outside consultants which said that dumbasses are over-represented on our staff. It is not that dumbasses don’t suffer or have their stories to tell, …
. Last week, I went up to the park to see the eclipse. I avoided the viewing event put on by the town in the local park. Instead, I observed it from a hunting platform a resident has set up on the undeveloped land behind the park. On the way up to the back lot, …
Bill Kousmanides is Speedy Gonzales. He answers emails before you send them. He picks up the phone when you are on the second digit of the area code. He participated in the Caltech Negative Time Run and arrived an hour and a half before he left. His responsiveness is an important quality, because he is …
The Dirt Lease staff recently conducted a team-building retreat in New Mexico. When the doors to the rental car shuttle in Albuquerque airport closed and the chirpy voice intoned, ‘Welcome to New Mexico – Land of Enchantment!’, a wizened airport worker seated across from the staff said, ‘Land of Entrapment.’ Here is what we have …
Before I was born, I was an Eisenhower Republican. I didn’t care much about ideology. I supported politicians who were good managers who rewarded competence and punished corruption, a domestic policy that favored growth with a social safety net, and a foreign policy that cultivated alliances with democracies and stood up to dictators. The Republican …
The first time I wrote about Arch Stanton, I looked up the movie The Good, The Bad and the Ugly on Netflix and watched it. I do not recommend doing so. It is not a good film. It is not even the kind of shitty film that is fun to watch. Maybe we just have …