After 25 years of stuffing red envelopes, Netflix will ship out its last DVD today.

It’s not a surprise: The business is no longer the cash cow it once was, and Netflix wants to cut costs where it can amid the expensive streaming wars. And yet, Netflix wouldn’t be what it is today without the help of DVDs. The company that now influences decisions at the highest levels of Hollywood was built atop those shiny silver discs.

In the beginning, there was Beetlejuice. The Tim Burton film was the first DVD Netflix sent in 1998, back when most Friday nights were spent going to Blockbuster…only to find all copies of A Bug’s Life were taken. Netflix rendered that blue-and-gold behemoth obsolete by making it easy to rent a DVD online and get it the next day, with no late fees or due dates. At the height of its DVD service, Netflix was the US Postal Service’s fifth-largest customer, processing 1.2 million DVDs weekly, according to the NYT. It generated $2.6 billion in profit between 2012 and 2019, which Netflix used to invest in streaming and make original content gems like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Now, it’s just a service that we used to know

While the end of the DVD service was inevitable—the company’s name all but foresaw that—there were still about a million paying customers sad to see it go. And for those loyal renters, Netflix offered a parting gift: They can keep their final discs.

To commemorate the occasion, we’ve compiled some of our all-time favorite DVD picks. We still love you, bouncing DVD logo.

• Adam: The Lord of the Rings extended editions. The best behind-the-scenes content of all time. IYKYK.
• Abby: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg because it deserves to be viewed on a bigger screen than my laptop.
• Sam: The Parent Trap because the more Lindsay Lohans, the merrier.
• Cassandra: Monk. It gets nostalgia points for being the first show I watched via Netflix DVD, and it stars my favorite actor, Tony Shalhoub.
• Matty: Talladega Nights. I can’t be expected to remember every iconic line at all times.
• Dave: The Avengers (1998). Because Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman are great together, and no other movie has ever come close when it comes to avenging.

—CC

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House GOP’s first Biden impeachment hearing flopped. Republicans in Congress opened their impeachment inquiry into President Biden yesterday, looking to establish that he was involved in his family’s foreign business dealings. But the GOP’s own witnesses, which included law professor Jonathan Turley and forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky, testified that the existing evidence does not support impeachment charges. House Oversight Chairman James Comer, who’s leading the hearings, said he plans to continue the inquiry even if the government shuts down this weekend.

Yelp and Texas sued each other. The user review company preemptively sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week to protect its crisis pregnancy center label that says they “do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion providers.” Sure enough, Paxton then sued Yelp, arguing the label is misleading. Yelp denied that the label is deceptive or untruthful. Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, conservative lawmakers have taken individual businesses to court to further abortion restrictions.

GameStop named Ryan Cohen its new CEO. The billionaire activist investor, who had been serving as the video game retailer’s executive chairman, will not receive a salary. Cohen first bought a stake in GameStop in 2020 and then joined its board the following year at the height of the meme stock frenzy. Its stock has since cooled off, but better-than-expected revenue in the second quarter may suggest Cohen’s plan to push deeper into e-commerce is starting to take effect.

Saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico is creeping into the Mississippi River, polluting the drinking water in Louisiana parishes and threatening to strike New Orleans. President Biden approved an emergency declaration for Louisiana this week, unlocking federal funds to deal with the salt onslaught.

Local officials are assuring residents that there will be plenty of bottled water to go around and imploring them to abstain from raiding supermarket aisles.

Why is Big Muddy getting salty?

• A wedge-shaped layer of saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico is always present under the Mississippi’s freshwater. The river current normally pushes the saltwater downstream, keeping it near the mouth of the river.
• But a lack of rainfall this summer has weakened the river’s usual flow, allowing the brine to move upstream.

Since the Mississippi is running low more frequently with climate change, the risk of repeated saltwater intrusions is only growing.

US Army Corps of Engineers to the rescue. The group is working to delay the saltwater’s encroachment by increasing the height of an existing underwater barrier. It’s also planning to relocate freshwater from further upriver.—SK

If there were ever a morning for a continental breakfast, this would be it. While you were sleeping, American golfers began their Ryder Cup title defense against Europe at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club on the outskirts of Rome. Team USA dominated the 2021 tournament in Wisconsin—however, the US has not won a Ryder Cup in Europe since 1993.

The beloved golf tournament began in 1927 and is played every two years, alternating between the US and Europe.

How it works: Over three days, the US and European teams will compete against each other in a variety of “match play” formats to earn points. The team with the most points wins, but it’s all for bragging rights—there’s no prize money handed out.

Here’s a primer to get yourself familiar with the intercontinental rivalry.

Tale of the tape: United States / Europe

Odds: -115 / +100 (this means the US is slightly favored)

Number of golf courses: 17,000 / 9,000

Economic growth in the past 15 years: 82% / 6% (in the eurozone)

Mandatory time off: none / four weeks of paid vacation

Number of places named “Rome”: At least 20 / 1

Most famous detective: Benoit Blanc / Sherlock Holmes

Most famous invention: The Snuggie (2008) / Printing press (1440)

Best Batman: Michael Keaton / Christian Bale

—DL

Stat: The perfect Costco haul: 4,000 dishwasher pods, a 700-ounce bottle of Kirkland vodka, and a 24-karat gold bar. The bulk seller is now listing the precious metal on its website for members only at about $1,900 a pop. Even with a limit of two bars per member, Costco often sells out a few hours after putting them online. The value of gold has jumped over 15% in the last year, but Costco’s real interest seems to be attracting survivalists who might also buy some supplies for their panic rooms, like this bucket of 150 dried meals.

Quote: “To hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details…I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the f*ck out of me.”

Barack Obama: 44th president and now Hollywood script doctor? Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail told Vanity Fair that Obama, whose production company, Higher Ground, is behind Esmail’s upcoming disaster film, Leave the World Behind, leveraged his experience as president to provide some sharp notes that helped “ground” the movie in reality. “He wanted to see a really good film,” Esmail added. The former POTUS might just know what he’s doing—American Factory, produced by Higher Ground, won the Oscar for best documentary in 2019.

Read: The FTX trial is bigger than Sam Bankman-Fried—and potentially very embarrassing for all of crypto. (The Verge)

Getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to your friend pushing back dinner when you’re already running late.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

Watch: Twenty great under-the-radar shows like The Leftovers and The Knick to stream while we wait for Hollywood to get up and running again.

Bonus watch: Treat yourself to a deeply unsettling double feature this weekend with “Saw Patrol”—Saw X followed by PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie.

Play: Marvel at these big-budget playrooms in luxury homes, which include climbing walls, foam pits, and whatever a “fantasy reading forest” is.

Nerd out: The emerging “whom of which” phrase tells us a lot about how syntax shapes language.

Check yourself: Wondering if you’ve got enough insurance—or if you’re paying too much? Take Ramsey Solutions’ 5-minute Coverage Checkup quiz to see what you (really) need.*

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