uh, did MELPA disappear ?

qluupp:➜  ~  % dig  any

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>>  any
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 30507
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;melpa.org.			IN	ANY

;; Query time: 4191 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Feb 27 16:25:15 2018
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 27

hmm. apparently it's just me

Is this connected?

Error (use-package): Cannot load fold-this
Error (use-package): Failed to install fold-this: Failed to verify signature: "fold-this-20180224.40.el.sig"

might be - i traced my problem - google's DNS servers @ 8.8.8.8 (whichever of them i am seeing from here, anyway) are not serving records for http://melpa.org for some reason. switching to 9.9.9.9 fixed it for me