Guatemala bound & Who Died?

Notes for the week of January 12, 2026

Flew to Guatemala City on Saturday to visit Penny’s little best friend Moe who moved there with her family about six months ago.
- We stayed with them on Saturday night and drove to Antigua on Sunday where KO is attending a conference.
- As it happened, there was a state of emergency declared by the government after an outbreak of gang violence that left eight police officers dead. We inadvertently drove twice past the scene of the gang riot on our way to Antigua. Not auspicious, but ultimately it was fine.
- The good news is Penny and Moe had a blast and we had a fun time chatting with Moe’s parents.

Went to a coffee shop while the cleaners were at our house and on a whim I coded up Who Died? It’s a constantly up-to-date list of notable deaths and obituaries.
- I use the Wikidata API to monitor for new death-dates being added.
- I take the names of the recently deceased and then match them to news stories in a short window after their death.
- There’s a daily, weekly, and annual view, as well as an archive that lets you explore obits by country and occupation.
The spring cleaning continued. Massive reorganization of our linen closets and the like. We have so much garbage. If I lived alone I would reduce my possessions to a robe, a begging bowl, and a laptop, or get as close to that as possible.
Read The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, which was fantastic. Don’t know why I haven’t read more good fiction like this in my life. Aiming to correct that this year.
- Started watching the (to my surprise Brian De Palma) film adaptation but turned it off halfway through it was so bad.
Continued to work on our guys trip. Looks like we’ll be heading to the Hudson Valley.
Made some major bug fixes to Derbyist.
Went to JZ’s farewell party at Mercatus. Very happy for her.