Ice Cream Social

Prologue

I met Jeff Furman in 1998, when he offered to rent me a corner of the large room he said was his office. I knew that Jeff had degrees in accounting and law and that he also had something to do with Ben & Jerry’s, but I didn’t know exactly what that was. Perhaps Jeff worked for a local not-for-profit group that hires teenagers, which operated the ice cream shop directly below the office and had its papers and junk taking up most of the room. Or maybe he worked for the Ithaca Skate Park—one afternoon I had to pick my way past a group of teenagers who were politely holding a meeting, some of them balancing on skateboards while they talked. It was a chaotic but friendly place, and everyone around Jeff was doing something interesting.

Jeff ...