Dispatches : 2026
28 January 2026
Oh, no! Anyway… Amazon to close Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh to concentrate on Whole Foods and grocery delivery. The closure includes the one that took 4 years just to open.
A year ago: NTSB Animation - Aircraft Visibility Study - DCA Midair Collision.
Mel Brooks’ last for decades, Dracula-Dead and Loving It (Columbia Pictures, 1995) was $1.50 at United Artists Movies at Fair Oaks, the presentation was cut off at 86m just as the credits started.
27 January 2026
Italian officials rebuke the mayor of Milan with “non è che stanno a arrivare le SS” as L’Ice in Italia per i Giochi invernali, portavoce: “Collaboreranno alla sicurezza delle Olimpiadi”.
Governor Youngkin pardoned Fairfax police officer in 2023 Tysons Corner shooting.
The Republican project wasn’t supposed to be this obvious: The Supreme Court’s “History and Tradition” Test Just Ran Into America’s History and Tradition of Anti-Black Racism.
26 January 2026
No bus today! Power outages and canceled flights as winter storm brings snow, sleet and ice.
They sound a bit like President Adar with his hopes for peace with the Cylons back in 1978: Open letter from more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies asking for peace and cooperation.
Time for Warner to do the same: DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton files to end reelection campaign.
25 January 2026
Iran’s Internet Blackout Persists As Report Says Protest Death Toll May Exceed 30,000.
Nostalgia for the early 2000s is credited: Jang’s New Balance 204L Sneakers Sell Out.
Kosovo has signed up! Trump unveils his new ‘Board of Peace,’ but some countries wary.
24 January 2026
Criminal minions of the President act with impunity: ICE Just Killed Another Neighbor.
WASHINGTON PREMIERE: I Can’t Sleep [J’ai pas sommeil] (New Yorker Films Release, 1994) was $6 at the Biograph.
Alexandria declares Snow Emergency, requiring vehicle removal on emergency routes.
23 January 2026
Minnesota says ICE out: Anger sweeps America as five year old is detained by ICE agents.
I avoided everything but for 3 animated productions: See the full list of 2026 Oscar nominations.
In Indonesian caves: This 67,800-year-old hand stencil is the world’s oldest human-made art.
22 January 2026
Victory Center conversion plans to deliver 377-unit all-affordable housing building by 2027.
Othello (Columbia Pictures, 1995) for $4 at United Artists Fairfax Towne Center 10 started late.
Mass market paperbacks — the books that ‘democratized America’ — are no more (via).
21 January 2026
A curse for the situation: Canada’s Carney says world order ‘in the midst of a rupture’.
Virginia’s third case: Preschooler with measles led to potential exposures in N. Va. last week
❄ Evolving️: Confidence increases for ‘significant’ winter storm in DC area this weekend.
20 January 2026
BestBus: Errant bus driver takes passengers for unwanted ride to Vienna Metro station.
From Dusk Till Dawn (Dimension Films, 1996) was $3 at AMC Potomac Mills 15, I noted a 1995 copyright. I would buy the Exclusive Director’s Edition laserdisc late the next year for $51.80 at Saturday Matinee #0762 in Georgetown Park (disposal in 2011).
I drove up this time, as four vied (and one was just picked) to be a candidate for state Delegate.
19 January 2026
You might underestimate bovine cognition at your peril: Meet Veronika, the tool-using cow.
Impeachment, 25th Amendment, or…? “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace” as Russia welcomes Trump’s tariffs on NATO allies over Greenland as ‘collapse’ of alliance.
Toll will rise: Spanish PM promises thorough investigation after 39 killed in train crash.
18 January 2026
Gun pulled at Springfield Town Center, bringing Fairfax County police, finding nothing.
Hailee Steinfeld is in Pitch Perfect 2 at 17 as a reminder it’s set in college, I watched on Netflix.
As 75th, Spanberger sworn in as Virginia’s first woman governor, moves swiftly to set agenda
17 January 2026
Oglala Sioux Tribe Rejects ICE Conditions for Information on Detained Members.
Yahoo! Widgets, CanoScan LiDE 210, and Nikon ViewNX are among the victims of a shift from Mojave to Sequoia. It’s been nearly eight years since I took on the Mac Pro 5,1, its purchase was 7 years prior. This replacement is my second purchase from iPowerResale (the first was 10 years ago) and, sure, it looked nice on the outside but when I opened it to install a Sonnet Tech Allegro 7-Port USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A PCIe Card (to accomodate legacy peripherals) a golf ball’s worth of dust fell out! The need to let go of 32-bit apps wasn’t a surprise, but a subtler problem arose in only one of the two accounts transferred—a missing glyph where my style rule employs U+202F. The answer turned out to be reliance on a version 2.x of Times New Roman, deleting that version and allowing the use of version 5.x files was the solution. The two Mac Pro 7,1 on the premises are headed for a planned obsolescence very shortly: What’s happening with code signing and future macOS?
Former Senator Turned Biglaw Lawyer Sued For Breaking Up Bodyguard’s Marriage.
16 January 2026
An app’s blunt life check adds another layer to the loneliness crisis in China and elsewhere.
His death was first reported in December but now that an obituary was published in The New York Times on Wednesday (via offers a gift link) his story is getting more attention: Today in Lives Lived Well: Renfrew Christie, Anti-Apartheid Saboteur.
Our governor-elect creating a Trial by Firehouse as House District 5 primary set for Tuesday.
15 January 2026
Croatia selects Alexandria as home base for 2026 World Cup (via).
Forum Communications to Acquire Midwest Newspaper Portfolio from Wick Communications.
Two if by Sea (Warner Bros., 1996) was $3 at AMC Potomac Mills 15.
14 January 2026
Serbians mark Orthodox Christian New Year according to old tradition with fireworks, drones, and laser effects. (To be fair, by “old tradition” AP means use of the Julian calendar.)
His nomination had been withdrawn last year (previously): Preminuo Mark Brnović, kojeg je Tramp nominovao za ambasadora u Srbiji. It’s been just over a year since Hill stepped down.
The Dilbert guy (previously) who used a sockpuppet account to praise himself has died and MetaFilter is normal about it: Consider Catbert, who was once handsome and tall as you.
13 January 2026
The signs at today’s firehouse primary at the library were definitely oriented for arrivals by car.
RFE/RL uses maps to demonstrate the differences in territory involved: The invasion of Ukraine has already lasted longer than the Soviet fight against the Nazis in World War II.
Series of weekend Metro closures coming to Crystal City and Reagan National.
12 January 2026
Virginia’s second so far this year: VDH: Child with measles visited Fort Belvoir medical center.
UK inquiry as Malaysia, Indonesia become first to block Musk’s Grok over AI deepfakes.
Shorn of its tools: The Story Of Ukraine’s Rare Mi-24 Hind Radiation Detection Helicopters.
11 January 2026
Flower Shops Protest LEGO Bouquets used at Korean award ceremony, via their association.
There was some humor in these pages about catching up to the year (2022) in which Soylent Green is set, and then again in 2024 with A Boy and His Dog, but I’ve seen nothing yet for the shaky case that can be made for 2026 as the year in which Metropolis (1927) (via) takes place.
To me the perspective looks like a pizza slice: Q&A: What’s cooking in the new food pyramid?
10 January 2026
‘We have to stand up’: ICE killing in Minneapolis sparks protests across US.
The American President (Columbia Pictures, 1995) was $3 at AMC Courthouse Plaza 8, which meant I had seen everything playing at this location. The federal government had been closed since Monday (today was Wednesday) for a weather emergency and while it would open the next day, to get to the office would take me four hours on account of the crowded trains on the Metrorail. Snow early Friday morning would close the federal government again, I would see Toy Story a second time (previously).
U.Va. claims to use three: Why do people lose their minds over typefaces and fonts?
09 January 2026
Wegmans declines to confirm use of facial recognition technology at Alexandria store.
I saw Pitch Perfect was on Netflix and had a delayed reaction to the recommendation I didn’t read two weeks ago (The December Comfort Watches 2025, Day Twenty-Four: Pitch Perfect). By 2012, my days of seeing even one movie a month were well in the past and clearly I made bad choices.
Carved up and neglected, Route 66 continues to fascinate as it turns 100 (previously).
08 January 2026
Snow in Europe, Milja Gogić has no gloves reporting on conditions in Belgrade for RTS.
77 million voted for the criminal at the top: How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids?
Ship was empty all along : The US seizes the Russian-flagged oil tanker that fled Venezuela.
07 January 2026
Serbia Deepens Military Ties With China Through Drones, Air Defense Systems.
Before it was a New Grand Mart, it was a Grand Mart, and before that, it was a Giant Food: Longstanding Seven Corners grocery store, Italian restaurant eyed for redevelopment.
Trump wants you dead: ICE officer fatally shoots driver through car window in Minneapolis.
06 January 2026
B. cereus: Healthy 18-year-old welder nearly died of anthrax—the 9th such puzzling case.
Twelve Monkeys (Universal Pictures, 1995) was $3 at AMC Courthouse Plaza 8, I also paid $1.83 for a bottle of water. A packed house, a talkative guy in the row ahead that had seen it before fortunately had seat-side companions that were equally talkative although I did hear him be convinced the bum was also Willis’s character. Madeleine Stowe was 36 as the doctor meeting a traveler to our time.
Five Years Since America’s First Coup Attempt and the person to blame is still at large.
05 January 2026
My last visit was in 2022: Photos: Vienna library demolished after 54 years of operations.
I was slightly faster on the draw in purchasing the latest work by Thomas Levenson (previously) but I began So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs — And May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease only late last year. Levenson hits all the classics in tracing an idea so ludicrous it took centuries to develop into a theory—that tiny, invisible beings could affect the course of human events, even the affairs of ladies and gentlemen shielded from the conditions to which lower classes were relegated. Jacket design: Elena Giavaldi. Jacket art: images created by Tal Danino and Soonhee Moon. (1)
Burke & Herbert: Old Town-based bank expanding into Pennsylvania through $354M deal.
04 January 2026
Daily Progress, too: Hoffman Media Takes Control of Lee Enterprises to Further Mission.
It is obviously routine to value apartments by the cost per square meter and not the total: Најскупљи станови у Београду, предњачи Савски венац с највећом ценом од 6.818 евра по квадрату.
A recommendation at FanFare was enough to get me to stream Cover-Up on Netflix.
03 January 2026
A comprehensive look at world reaction: Šta Vučič misli o napadu Amerike na Venecuelu?
I got the notice yesterday, but the project has been underway since last August: Comcast is Shutting Down Its Email Service & Moving Customers to Yahoo – Here is Everything You Need to Know. By declining to participate in moving it, I hope to be rid of that spam-magnet account by summer.
Academy is next: What To Expect From Star Trek In 2026: A Franchise At A Crossroads.
02 January 2026
USPS says mail-in ballots might not get postmark on same day they’re dropped off.
I’ve long assumed that the upside-down video from an iPad-using participant in our Wamalug video conferences was user error, but it’s actually a problem with the Firefox desktop browser that I’m using, a problem that’s eight years old: Support 3gpp:video-orientation in WebRTC.
I used a pass to see the sequel Grumpier Old Men (Warner Bros., 1995) at AMC Courthouse Plaza 8.
01 January 2026
Amsterdam church burns amidst ‘unprecedented’ New Year’s Eve violence against police.
In their fourth day: Iran’s Pezeshkian urges unity as protests over economic woes turn deadly.
The publicity machine worked, I’ve watched 3 comedy specials by Cristela Alonzo on Netflix.