Side Salad: They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Data Center
July 16, 2026
Good morning from Dieline’s editor-in-chief, Bill McCool. Here’s your daily side serving of design news, short musings, brand stuff, and forgotten ephemera.
Opposition to data centers continues to surge, as New York State just enacted the first statewide moratorium. “As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a press release. Regulation now, FFS; it beats forcing people to sell their homes.
Great photos from Addie Chin for Ikebana Waste Cocktails (which were also equitably art-directed by Olivia Snowd)en. This is why you hire a good photographer.
Dude, Kalshi is gross, and whoever did this should be ashamed.
So, let me get this right: Glossier laid off 1/3 of its people, and needed to recapture what made it great in the first place... so the brand slapped a Milton Glaser I Heart NY on the bottles and called it a day? Whi’e it’s only the opening salvo for the beleagured beauty brand, this still isn’t quite the unlock Glossier thinks it is, and I doubt very much that anyone thinks of them as “that NYC brand.” Also, what is a “balmdega?” Wrong answers only.
And, yes, I know the above is a play on “bodega,” but it truly sounds clunky and awkward and isn’t the ah-ha moment they think it is. Nor does it really look like a proper bodega.
Branding authoritarianism is fun! Nothing says we have a completely normal functioning country quite like putting a sitting US president—which is illegal, mind you—on a $1 gold coin. Also, did we really need to go with full-on glower mode?
Lorde is cool. Kylie Jenner is not cool. Let’s all shake hands and agree.
According to QSR Magazine, Wingstop is America’s fastest-growing restaurant chain. Huh!
At this point, Bubble could put bacon grease in a tube, and my tween and teen would still buy it.
You are either Team Maddie’s Secret or Team Tony. There is no in between.
“Netflix often feels optimized for the binge rather than the brain.” Truer words were never spoken by Daniel John here. Netflix has only produced a handful of shows of note, but for the most part, they haven’t really been capable of making truly great TV (largely because they hate their audience and think they’re stupid). That’s very much by design. They are not HBO or Apple; this is empty-calorie, non-appointment viewing. What’s more, this is completely emblematic of the streaming era—mass-produced forgettable fluff for instant gratification with a side of forced nostalgia and not much more than that.
My takeaway here is that Hailey Bieber likes clunky-ass computers and physical media. She’s an elder millennial/Gen Xer who hoards CDs and DVDs, too. She’s just like meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Get busy L-I-V-I-N-G.
-Bill