Among the things I learned this week:
* Alexandria, VA, has the longest running farmers’ market in the country. (Courtesy: Southern Living)

* The personal- and tactical-level experience of Stalin’s Soviet Union. (Courtesy: Orlando Figes’ The Whisperers)

* Clothes dryer’s thermal fuse (Courtesy: Personal experience)

* Fifty-six British gin distilleries opened during the past two years. (Courtesy: Economist)