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For Americans with conventional work schedules, Monday holidays are often a blessing. However, despite the extra weekend day, these observances can also sneak up on you and be confusing. Today (Monday, February 16) is Presidents’ Day, which is officially known as Washington’s Birthday. In this story, we’ll break down what exactly is open and closed on the day that we celebrate all the commanders in chief. Before we get into all that, lets look at the history of the day and how it came to be. What does George Washington have to do with it? George Washington, the first president of the United States, has everything to do with Presidents’ Day. The holiday evolved out of a remembrance of the man who helped defeat the British and usher the country into a new era as an independent nation. Washington served as head of state from 1789 to 1797 and died in 1799. The following year many began celebrating his legacy on his birthday, February 22. It wasnt until 1879 that his birthday became a federal holiday, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law. At first this new edict only included Washington, D.C., but in 1885 the whole country got in on the act. What about Abraham Lincoln? The 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, is also associated with Presidents’ Day because of his February 12 birthday. Some states such as Illinois recognized it as day of observance even though it was never an official federal holiday. Lincoln’s leadership through the Civil War cemented his legacy as a major political figure. What is the Uniform Monday Holiday Act? The Uniform Monday Holiday Act was signed into law on June 28, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It did not take effect until January 1, 1971. This new law essentially created the modern three-day weekend. Before it was the law of the land, Representative Robert McClory of Illinois tried to attach a provision to the act that would have combined both Washington’s and Lincolns birthdays into one observance. The Virginians in Congress disagreed, and the provision was dropped. Officially, on the federal level, the holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February is George Washingtons birthday. But over time, advertisers and many on the state level began calling the holiday Presidents Day. Now that you know who and why we celebrate, lets get into what this means on the day itself. Are stock markets open on Presidents Day? No. Because it is a federal holiday, most markets are closed. This includes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq exchange. This also applies to most U.S. bond markets. The only exception is cryptocurrency markets. Will mail be delivered on Presidents Day? Post offices will be closed and no mail will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on Presidents Day. UPS will conduct business as usual. FedEx will also operate but some early on-call or drop box pickups may be modified or unavailable. Are banks open on Presidents Day? No. Banks will be closed on Presidents Day. This includes major chain banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. The good news is online banking and ATMs outside of branch locations are available. Are schools open on Presidents Day? No. Most public schools will be closed. Some may even take Lincolns birthday off in addition. Are restaurants and fast-food chains open on Presidents Day? Yes. Most restaurants and fast-food joints want your business and hope you dine out. Your local McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Popeyes, or Wendy’s should be open for business. Are grocery stores open on Presidents Day? Yes. Most grocery stores are open on Presidents Day. Some may have modified hours so it is always a good idea to check ahead. Aldi and Costco are typically open, but hours vary by location. Are stores open on Presidents Day? Yes. Most stores are open on Presidents Day. Many will also have sales to attract business on the three-day weekend. This includes big-box retailers such as Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and others. Presidents’ Day is typically a big day for mattress and furniture sellers like Mattress Firm and Raymour & Flanigan. Are pharmacies open on Presidents Day? Yes. Most pharmacies are open on Presidents Day, including chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, but it is always good practice to double-check with your preferred location to prevent a wasted trip.
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. With apologies to T.S. Eliot, some CEOs are finding that February, not April, may be the cruelest month. In recent weeks, Workday, PayPal, and The Washington Post parted ways with their chief executives, suggesting that high CEO turnover, which reached record levels in recent years, may continue in 2026. CEO turnover remains high Russell Reynolds Associates, the global leadership advisory firm, found that 234 CEOs of globally listed companies departed their roles last year, up 16% from 2024 and 21% above the eight-year average. Last year marked the second consecutive record-breaking year for CEO exits, according to the firms Global CEO Turnover Index Report. The Russell Reynolds report attributes the high turnover in part to pressure from activist investors who want faster results. (Its research shows that 32 CEOs resigned within one year of an activist campaign in 2025, compared to 27 in 2024.) The data also suggests that boards are willing to pull the trigger earlier when performance stalls. Its too early to predict whether 2026 will set another record for CEO turnover, but the underlying macro pressuresincluding activist influence, market volatility, and ongoing transformationremain in place, says Laura Mantoura, managing director in Russell Reynoldss U.S. Board & CEO Advisory practice. As a result, sustained high levels of CEO turnover should be expected.” However, not everyone is convinced this is the new normal. Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, sees turnover leveling off after three years of brisk executive change, which followed a reluctance to change leaders during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and 2021. I think our initial expectation right now is that the demand for change at the top is cooling a bit despite some big recent examples, he says. Challenger notes that theres one scenario that could trigger another record wave of CEO exits: a recession. Experience wins Investor demands appear to be pushing boards to favor experienced CEOs at public companies. Of the CEOs who took the reins at S&P 500 companies in 2025, 79% were first-time CEOs, down from 83% in 2024, and lower than the eight-year average of 85%, according to Russell Reynolds. That trend is playing out in 2026 succession scenarios: Alex Chriss, who had been an executive vice president at Intuit before becoming CEO of PayPal, is being replaced by Enrique Lores, who spent six years as president and CEO of HP. Workday cofounder Aneel Bhusri, who has served as the software companys CEO or co-CEO at various points during the last 15 years, takes over from Carl Eschenbach, who had been a partner at Sequoia Capital and president and chief operating officer at VMware before joining Workday. Whether the recent spike in CEO turnover represents a temporary surge or permanent shift, executive recruiters and advisers say boards need to prioritize succession planning, and they need to think about the companys needs in the coming years. As leadership expert Bill George has said: Figure out what [the company] is going to need for the next 10 years, and find people with the mental agility and courage to look at it differently than you looked at it. Your leadership outlook Do you see CEO turnover continuing at a rapid pace? Or are you, like Challenger, expecting it to level off? Let me know your thoughts. My email address is stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Read more: CEO turnover The surprising power of interim CEOs How two CEOs hold themselves to a high productivity standard AI is rewriting the CEO job description. Are you ready?
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Picture a memory from childhood, one that feels real and nostalgic, but somehow just out of grasp: perhaps a family trip to the beach, or a moment mid-swing on the playset, or an afternoon spent hunting for four-leaf clovers. Now, imagine that you could bottle that golden moment into a fragrance. One scientist at MIT, Cyrus Clarke, is working to do just that. Alongside a team of fellow researchers, Clarke has developed a physical machine called the Anemoia Device, which uses a generative AI model to analyze an archival photograph, describe it in a short sentence, and, following the users own inputs, convert that description into a unique fragrance. The word anemoia was coined by author John Koenig and included in his 2021 book, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It refers to a specific feeling of nostalgia for a time or place that one never actually experienced themselvesand its exactly what Clarkes team hopes to capture with the Anemoia Device. According to a paper published by the team, the device explores the concept of extended memory, or the idea that, in the digital age, memory is increasingly stored and accessed through external media, like digital archives. Studies have already shown that memory can be formed vicariouslylike when a second-hand account, perhaps from a parent, shapes ones own memoriesbut the Anemoia Device is a delightfully physical, interactive experiment into how AI might allow users to experience a memory of a past they never actually lived. [Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab] The Anemoia Device The Anemoia Device looks like something that one might find in the medical bay of a retro sci-fi spaceship. Its a slim, metal-and-plastic contraption accented with a singular neon green screen and a simple array of three physical dials. At the bottom, a glass beaker waits to catch the final fragrance. [Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab] To start, a user inserts a photograph into the device. A built-in vision-language model (VLM) analyzes the image and generates an initial caption based on what it finds. For a picture of tourists in China, an example used in the paper, the device might write, A tourist in black shorts and a child pose in the doorway along the Great Wall of China, with the iconic stone steps and mountainous landscape stretching up toward the sky. [Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab] Users can then adjust the parameters of the caption with the three dials: one to decide which person or object in the image should be the subject; a second to describe the age of the subject; and a third to describe the mood of the scene. [Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab] “Im personally very interested in inventing new physical interfaces for generative AI,” Clarke says. “Generative AI usually starts with a blank prompt. The dials replace that with a physical, easy to understand grammar. Youre not trying to say the right thing to an algorithm, its more akin to tuning an instrument.” A language-learning model (LLM), built from ChatGPT-4o, aggregates the original caption and the user’s inputs into a short, poetic narrative. If one were to select the Great Wall of China itself as the subject of the aforementioned prompt, the result would be something like, For centuries, from the Warring States to the Ming, Ive joyfully observed times march and countless travelers along my path of stone, brick, and wood. Next comes the LLMs most impressive task: converting this written poe into a tangible scent. [Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab] Smell as a memory portal The scent-development process relies not just on identifying the appropriate olfactory notes, but also on evoking the right emotions. Clarkes team trained the model to select from a scent library of 39 different fragrances (since expanded to a broader portfolio of 50 scents), ranging from old books to leather and dirt. Each fragrance was coded with a set of descriptors, labeling them with details like their primary notes, associated concepts, and strongest emotions. The LLM uses its training to select the right fragrances and determine how much of each should be used in the final concoction. All of that information is funneled to a custom olfactory display, which uses four pumps to draw the necessary liquid out of their vials and into the waiting beaker (the final formula for the Great Wall of China fragrance includes campfire, dirt, cedar, and bamboo). The Anemoia Device is capable of capturing an essentially infinite range of fragrances, from the smell of a sandy beach on a hot summer day in the 80s to the aroma of a couple enjoying a pear in a scenic garden. Ultimately, the study concludes, the device is a provocation that asks “what it means to remember when memory itself can be generated, what it means to feel when that feeling is co-authored with a machine, and what it means to be human when we can craft beautiful, fragrant fictions of pasts we have never lived.”
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