Christie’s is auctioning off a 1792 letter in which George Washington discussed the replacement of Pierre L’Enfant to finish the design and construction of the new capital city.

Mid-December has arrived, and with that comes the inevitable flood of best-of lists. The Washington Area Film Critics’ Association has, for the previous five years of its existence, been in the habit of trying to get their own list out ahead of most of the other critics’ societies. We can’t really blame them. Considering the fact that none of the critics from the city’s biggest newspaper are members, not to mention the fact that the…