Readers of a certain age—35 to 50, give or take—might remember the seminal 2001 crunk track “Raise Up,” in which rapper and Timbaland protégé Petey Pablo encourages people in locations across the world to take their shirts off, twist them around their hands, and spin them like a

Climate change… yikes, right? You’ve probably noticed that it’s been very warm this year. September, in fact, was the most anomalously hot month in recorded history, inspiring one climate scientist to describe the weather as “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.” Not a great sign!  Perhaps you’ve been worrying about

There’s an old saying that goes: if you can’t win the game, change the rules. This is a cute expression to print on a motivational poster hanging in the lobby of your scrappy upstart small business. It is not cute when you’re talking about toying with the

Great news, everyone! It’s a year that ends in a number, which means we here in the Commonwealth of Virginia get to exercise our god- and James Madison-given right to vote. Voting—an every four or two years at best exercise in most decent parts of this country—turns

What does an ideal Sunday sound like to you? Maybe there’s brunch. A bit of football. Some napping reading perhaps. Menu planning and meal prep, that’s popular. And let’s not forget drinking heavily to beat back the Sunday Scaries - that’s a classic! Also, yardwork. The

Near the end of the first act of Thornton Wilder’s most famous play, two characters discuss the address on an envelope and how it frames their place in the world. The instructions to the postman start from their house and go on to list ever more encompassing labels—their

Expectations are a funny thing. Take for example the recent Disney+ show Secret Invasion. It was the latest Marvel MCU story (awesome), it featured Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury character (awesomer), and it was adapting a legendary and era-defining Marvel comics storyline (awesomest). Anticipation could not have possibly been

Congratulations - you’re reading the inaugural issue of ALXtra! We picked quite a week to launch a newsletter about local issues in Alexandria, given the truly manic level of civic discourse we’re experiencing (I mean, have you seen Nextdoor??). In truth, the timing couldn’t be better -