“Whether you’re an aspiring poet, writer, painter, scholar, filmmaker, mixed-media assembler, dancer, sculptor, textile-artist, musician, designer, dramiturg, cook, carer, community organiser, subvertiser, mechanic, gardener, forester, builder and/or ecologist, you’ll have a part to play.”

RIP CBS Radio News (1927-2026). I hope those who are losing their jobs (the entire staff) find landing zones that allow them either to keep doing what they're so good at or pivot to what they've always yearned to try. End of an era.

Further research into supposedly high-quality senior cat formulas: Cost per 200 calories/day so far ranges from $4.10 to $5.98. Not all of them are easy to eat for a toothless cat.

I had no idea how much the caloric content of tinned cat food varies until I started trying to redo the diet of a 🐈‍⬛ who‘s been losing weight and not tolerating kibble well. At least she’s not a picky eater.

Feeling awful for residents and fellow fans of Glasgow after last night’s devastating fire that took out a landmark building and left Glasgow Central railway station closed for safety checks. Blaze began in a vape shop. Kudos to crews who doused it with no loss of life. www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...

Spring is on the wing! About two dozen robins are working over our yard this morning, especially the leaf litter in the native plant beds.

“I’m happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all, where it's not insurance or wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment. It’s the same in Greenland…” Mette Frederiksen, prime minister of Denmark

“After thorough review of the various schedules, [VDH] believes that AAP’s recommended schedule best reflects the existing science on how to optimally protect Virginia’s children and adolescents against 18 vaccine-preventable diseases” … including measles which is showing an uptick in VA.

Walk for Peace in #ArlingtonVA Mon afternoon-Tues morning 2/9-10, offers 4 prime gathering locations: 1) Crystal City, where they'll enter on US 1 and then veer onto Crystal Drive, then west along 12th Street and Army Navy Drive, past Pentagon City Mall. (Metro: Crystal City & Pentagon City) 1/4

For #ArlingtonVA folks and DMV neighbors wanting to greet the monks of the Walk for Peace on Monday, locations in Crystal City and north Arlington are accessible via Metro. Brief remarks at Marymount Univ night stop. They'll cross Chain Bridge to enter Washington, DC, early Tuesday morning.

Important paper. Schools are high-risk environments for respiratory disease transmission MAINLY because classrooms are underventilated. This problem has a workable solution - it just needs political will. Air quality is as important as water quality for public health. MT @martinmckee.bsky.social

International employees of every news organization, many of them local hires, are often the unsung heroes and heroines that keep a window on the world open for the rest of us. Donations to this fund will go directly to those laid off in the dire cuts at the Post. gofund.me/c0b05c224

This is a fantastic graphic on the post-viral impact of COVID published in Cell. When people think of long COVID, they likely think of the last image. Many don't know the virus can worsen pre-existing conditions & causes new ones (e.g. autoimmune disease, stroke) www.cell.com/action/showP...

This is one glaring reason why RFK Jr. and his MAHA posse is completely unserious about making America healthy - they ignore climate change & its impact on health

Shouldn’t be this hard—NIH director admits after being grilled by @sanders.senate.gov : 1) The best way to stop the measles epidemic is to vaccinate your kids against measles. 2) no single vaccine causes autism. RFK Jr is wrong.

😳 Thanks for the warning 😳

On this day, 67 years ago, “time ran out for ‘massive resistance’“ in Virginia. Link has contemporary account and the students’ own oral history. #ArlingtonVA

Gift link, thanks to @examined.bsky.social, regarding what may be in store for Haitian immigrants due to lose TPS status this week, including those who have revitalized Springfield, OH. Don’t look away. share.inquirer.com/u5XTUP

The video we all need. Childhood wonder regained (at least for now). Color me relieved.

Glad to see Virginians pushing back!

His voice cracked as he spoke.“Nurses are shift workers,” he said. “We always aim to leave our relief shift set up for success, to carry on the sacred work of care in the best way possible.” “Alex is now relieved. That means now it’s up to us to carry the work forward.”

#ArlingtonVA snow issue reporting form here: arlgis.arlingtonva.us/Apps/Snow/Sn...

Night ops. 9:15 pm. 18 degrees. Cleaning up a neighborhood traffic circle traversed by ART buses and school buses, local residents, and parents and students from two nearby schools. Thank you, @arlingtondes.bsky.social.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

3rd pass done, with the help of a neighbor. Passage along 3/4 of public sidewalk is widened, and our own front walk is in good shape. Changed tools & technique, adding flat blade spade for vertical cuts to break up the sleet blocks. Kids should be out building igloos. We have enough bricks for it.

2nd pass now done. Moved 2-3" of sleet off the walks I did this morning, some of it in hardened blocks. Base layer of merino did its job in these cold temps. #ArlingtonVA

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 28: When the federal government invades the rights of the people, they “can make use of” their state governments as “the instrument of redress.” Minnesota’s state government is the instrument. Use it.🧵

California has already joined. Let’s go!! @barbarafavola.bsky.social @hopeforvirginia.bsky.social

Solidarity with Minnesota today

Enumerating the good reasons — health, climate stability, and animal welfare — to ignore the new U.S. food pyramid and perhaps make small adjustments to whatt you eat open.substack.com/pub/mccormic...

Projecting this on EEOB might prevent WW3

2nd homeowner achievement of 2026 unlocked – I installed a bidet in the powder room. The folks at Luxe were very helpful. (Projects like this and mulching a new bed are helping me to keep steady amid the chaos.)

This analysis of an 8th Circuit asylum case decision is chilling: “Whether DHS was right or wrong is irrelevant, because no court may ask the question…. It converts discretion from a standard of review into a jurisdiction-stripping device.” open.substack.com/pub/ashtalks...

Planning to vote in tomorrow's Democratic firehouse primary for VA Sen District 39? Candidates vying to replace Sen. Adam Ebbin will make their case tonight at 7, online on Substack and in person at Charles Houston Rec Center in Alexandria.

From today’s #ICEOut rally, a powerful statement from #ArlingtonVA Commonwealth Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti ( = district attorney) about the zero authority held by ICE and Border Patrol outside of immigration enforcement. Thanks to @wofava.bsky.social for organizing. 1/2

Sun. a.m.: Messing about in the kitchen, I heard a wren’s call. I went to the back door to open it and hear the wren more clearly. Through the door’s glass, I looked into the eye of a hawk on the fence 15 feet away. The hawk was still for a moment, then took flight. How’s your day so far?

WIP, Day 2. New bed complete - 6 hrs work, 20 boxes as base layer, about 1/3 of mulch load used. Thought you might like to see my tool kit - spade, fork, kneeler, rubber hammer, string and stakes, Lesche knife, and the dumping Gorilla Cart that makes it all possible.

WIP. The sight and smell of a load of freshly delivered, steaming leaf mulch is enough to get me outside, especially with three mild days on offer. This will be another shade bed, thanks to the thriving hornbeam on the right, and will extend all to where the signs are. #NativePlants are on order.

And now for a some good news! A federal judge ruled that major U.S. medical groups can move forward with their lawsuit challenging RFK Jr.–backed vaccine policies. The case argues CDC vaccine advisory changes violated federal law. Stay tuned.... www.reuters.com/world/medica...

10/ RFK Jr. may have changed the schedule, but science and access haven’t changed. Families still have the power to protect their children. Don’t let confusion—or politics—take that choice away from you. Full version here 👉 yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/a-unilateral-change-to-childhood

I wish U.S. parents didn’t have to face the confusion and anxiety that will be the result of Kennedy’s unilateral, unscientific actions. Since the FDA can no longer be trusted, I’m following ameracadpeds.bsky.social for evidence-based information on children’s health.

Happy New Year to all, especially my fellow readers. I’m hoping to spend more time reading and less time scrolling in 2026. I’ve already maxed out my library hold list. What did I miss in 2025 that you loved?

A massive New Year’s gift for Star Trek aficionados! Congrats to all involved.

#Caturday post-Christmas still life with house panther

Update from Sunday’s #ArlingtonVA house fire: Firefighters spotted it from their glass-enclosed stairwell and jumped in the truck even before the call came in. Gratitude from Wilma Jones and all of us who send kind thoughts every time we drive past Station 8. open.substack.com/pub/wilmaj/p...

What’s called for is a layered kind of literacy with awareness not just of information but also of underlying agendas. This Substack by a librarian looks like a guide worth following. open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...

If you’ve watched The Stringer on Netflix, read Mort Rosenblum’s account, too. He was in the next room when it happened. www.mortreport.org/reports/kim-...

Thinking about the dedicated journalists of 60 Minutes, both on camera and off, what a gut punch this is for them, and what tough decisions must lie ahead. substack.com/@richardg11/...

Homeowner accomplishment of the day. Re-anchored baby gate at the top of the stairs. I’m 95% sure the RHS is in the stud. FWIW, this angle gate from KidCo is the only one I could find that would fit our configuration.

Such a strange tradition that we’ve evolved — annual December trip to Riverby Books in Fredericksburg VA (3 boxes this year; 2 came home w- us), followed by lunch (Billiken’s was delish!), and laying a wreath at spouse’s distant cousin’s grave at Fredericksburg National Cemetery, billikensbbq.com