Your Mid-Week Experiment

Regulator! Recipes! And you can come work for me!

Sunday’s essay about Natasha Harper-Madison’s fight to lower housing construction costs is getting a lot of play on Reddit, apparently. Some essays, especially ones that make a sharp point with the title, spread fast on Twitter. Some, like the recent one on Texas history curriculum, spark a lot of discussion on Facebook. This one, because it dealt with the pro-housing vs. anti-growth folks, was shared in private, which tells me a lot about the state of Austin politics.

Judah voted early for Prop A @JudahFromTexas

Excellent piece on the valiant and oft-lonely efforts of CM @NatashaD1atx to get our city council to treat housing affordability like the crisis that it is. @JasStanford writes about our city council and the dynamics at play like few others:

jasonstanford.substack.comShe just wanted to know if Austin could make housing cheaper. The Yeahbutters wanted to talk about trees.The city council can still make progress on housing, but they’re running out of time.

Jennifer (Houli) Houlihan, but in a mask @TheJHoulihan

@JasStanford ‘s The Experiment is straight 🔥 this morning. Almost enough to make me miss Austin City Hall. And @NatashaD1atx is a dang hero. I said what I said.

Here’s the latest chapter of Frank A. Spring’s Regulator. Charlie’s making his move on the gang. Will they buy his cover story?

Regulator, chapter 14

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Hiring a Spanish-speaking media relations person (please share this posting)

Exposing Libs of TikTok

Learning how to ask if people are happy at work

Cutting the heads off statues

Bemoaning shrinkflation

Making one-pan fish with bacon and corn

Reading Molly Ball on Elon Musk.

Slow-cooking chickpea, red pepper and tomato stew

Boomers might remember Tommy McLane as the swamp pop star from Louisiana who played Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars in the 1960s. I discovered him because Elvis Costello sings backup on “I Ran Down Every Dream.”

All the Old Knives on Amazon Prime is the kind of spy movie they don’t make any more for theatrical release. Starring Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton, the movie’s wattage shines too brightly for the art house, but it’s grown up tale of regret and acceptance is too far afield of what makes money in movie houses, which are superhero movies. We liked it, mostly.

---

Thanks to Noom, I lost 40 pounds over 2020-21 and have kept it off since then. Click on the blue box to get 20% off. Seriously, this works. No, this isn’t an ad. Yes, I really lost all that weight with Noom.

We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment. 

We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is some

Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. Out in paperback this June!