Gone fishing mailbag

Ernest Gellner, the political crisis in Israel, and airline deregulation's impact on the midwest

D.C. Public Schools takes the week of Presidents’ Day off, so the Slow Boring family is headed to Jamaica this weekend. Never fear, we have a full roster of content next week, but expect stories that are a bit off-the-news.

Beyond vacation, some other bits of good news I saw this week: malaria deaths are falling, we’re getting a new Bill Watterson book, the green transition is accelerating, Takoma Park’s first Black mayor says “development is not a dirty word,” and progress continues on a flu vaccine that doesn’t require needles.

Shoshanna O’Keefe: I'm a high school teacher who is asked to write dozens of letters of recommendation for colleges every year. For my own sanity, I cap the number I agree to write, but that always means turning down deserving students who can become increasingly desperate as more and more teachers' dance cards fill up. Even writing my agreed upon number of letters takes the good part of the day for both days of the weekend, sometimes two (we can't all be eff…