Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 2, the finale!)

"Okay, I found the bag. Oh my god, and I found chicken bones. Oh my god. This is it. Ladies and gentleman, we got ‘em."

An alleyway under surveillance

Happy Friday everybody,

We have a new episode for you. The finale to our investigation into the plague of chicken bones haunting the sidewalks of American cities.

This week, the shocking conclusion to our investigation into who -- or what -- has been leaving chicken bones strewn across the sidewalks of American cities. Our team of investigators returns with surveillance footage, and a recording of a superintendent with a rat-hitting stick. Plus, an exclusive interview with a public servant who holds a vision for a revolution in American urban trash collection.

It was such a pleasure to work with Manny, Noah, and Devan, and we’re excited to work more with them in the future. They’re also embarking on some investigations on their own, check them out here.

The Future of Trash?

We mention this report from the New York City Department of Sanitation in the episode.

In case you don’t live in New York City, first of all: congratulations, but please stop bragging. Second, it’s important to know that the sidewalks here are absurdly disgusting.

Shutterstock

I remember my first August here, realizing that all the movies and music I’d ingested glamorizing this wonderful place had failed to mention that summer is the season when the garbage juice cooks, sautés, steams, and then hovers over the city like the devil’s cologne.

Anyway, according to Department of Sanitation sanitation officials (who would know) this could all be avoided. They say that we live in this hell only because we’ve decided on a trash collection scheme that involves residents dumping trash bags on the streets, where rats and other creatures open them like food-filled Christmas presents.

The solution might be something called containerization, which would just mean smaller-than-average plastic public dumpsters on every block that sealed.

Here’s how they do it in Madrid.

A photo of containers in Madrid, Spain by Trevor Huxam

If you, like the rest of the staff of Search Engine, find yourself now obsessed with more perfect trash solutions, drop us a link to your preferred receptacle in the comments.

I don’t know what it is about Search Engine, but I notice we keep documenting the problems in American life that are solvable, and yet, perhaps a little too trivial to be solved. The nation’s version of wanting to get up to change the channel, but deciding to just sit through the commercial break instead. I don’t have a further thought about this, I’m just telling you I’m noticing it.

Book Recommendation Corner

I just finished this book that is so specifically for me and no one else that it feels almost indefensible to mention it here. But, the newsletter’s free, so:

How to Ru(i)n A Record Label, by Larry Livermore.

Livermore started Lookout Records, which put out a string of seminal Bay Area punk records in the 1980’s and 90’s. Most famously the first two Green Day records and Operation Ivy’s Energy, but also bands like The Mr. T Experience, Groovie Ghoulies, Screeching Weasel.

Those records for some reason hit the Pennsylvania suburbs hard in the early 2000’s. The Lookout records meant a lot to me. Anyway the book is a fascinating document of a scene that blew up more than anyone ever expected. There’s an irony in this story of how a bunch of punks who were so suspicious of selling out that they hated compact discs, then ended up creating a sound that sold millions of records.

I don’t know who else this is for, but as a student of both pop punk and art & commerce, I enjoyed it.

I am once again opening the book recommendation hotline. If you’re reading something you like, please drop it in the comments. Non-fiction or fiction.

Thanks, and we’ll see you next week with a new one,

PJ