(This is the final part of a six-part series.)
Sometime later in the fall of 1997, along with the arrival of cooler weather and light seasonal rains came the final plans for a palace coup at Wired Inc. This would result in the removal of scores of people, including the founders Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe.
In their stead, the company was going to be dismantled and sold off in pieces. The founders would be rewarded with a fair amount of compensation for their efforts, so they would be “fine“ financially. Not so much everyone else.
Near the top of the corporate hit list was my name. The very fact that made me indispensable in the old order — my relationship with Louis — made me all too disposable in the new one.
So, on a late afternoon when the sun was going down to the west, suddenly and strangely there were no further meetings on my online calendar. It was wide open. Then I was summoned to Louis’s office.
I walked in to see three people waiting, none of smiling. Just three senior execs stiff and grim in manner. I was thanked for my service, given a small severance check, and dismissed.
Louis was one of the three and he looked immensely sad. But he had nothing to say. This was not of his doing. So that is how my Wired chapter came to its end. All told, it had been only about two years, start to finish, though they were action-packed years and their impacts would last much, much longer.
AFTERWARD
Early August 2025 (28 years later)
One morning about a week ago, I opened my inbox to find a surprise, It was a message from an old friend, one I’d not heard from in many years. He sent me a photograph he’d taken of me back in 1997 in his office at Wired. (below) That photo unleashed many of the memories contained in this week’s series.
(Photo by Louis Rossetto.)
HEADLINES:
White House mulling Zelensky invite to Trump-Putin Alaska summit (The Hill)
Zelenskiy rejects ceding Ukrainian land to Russia for peace (Reuters)
IRS, White House clashed over immigrants’ data before tax chief was ousted (WP)
UK police arrest at least 466 people at Palestine Action protest in London (Al Jazeera)
Texas attorney general sues to try to remove 13 absent Democrats from office (WP)
Mexico’s President Says U.S. Forces Are Unwelcome in Her Country (NYT)
Trump Takes a Destructive Turn Against India (WSJ)
Tariffs: An all-purpose policy weapon (Reuters)
A wildfire continues to burn through the mountains north of LA, with thousands under evacuation orders (CNN)
Faced with rising seas and falling aid, Fijian villages move uphill (WP)
Bob Dylan is back in the studio (NME)
Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens. (NYT)
Mental Health Experts Advise Struggling Americans To Try Crying About It Like Little Baby (The Onion)