Ta-dah! It’s Tuesday. Good morning.
I sort of mentally divide the world into two camps: Numbers people and word people. I fall solidly into the latter. I excelled at languages as a student, but struggled with math. Today, I can hardly remember the first thing about what I learned in Geometry, let alone Calculus. But I can diagram the heck out of a sentence.
Do they even teach that anymore?
So, given my proclivity for words, it probably comes as no surprise that I am a big fan of Scrabble. I have played some wicked competitive games with my Mom, who is a whiz.
Actually, the issue is that she’s strategic and plays for points, whereas I always get into the trap of falling in love with the potential of making a killer word. This might be laudable and even impressive, but it’s no winning strategy, let me assure you.
It’s those two and three-letter words that are the key to winning. And also adding that strategic “s” to the end of other people’s creations while forming a brand new word of your own. Points on points on points.
Today happens to be National Scrabble Day, celebrating the game that was originally called LEXICO and later Criss Cross Words, based on both crossword puzzles and anagrams and developed by an unemployed architect and amateur artist named Alfred M. Butts in 1931. It was redesigned and rebranded as today’s modern Scrabble in 1948 by a guy named James Brunot.
Butts was born on this day in 1899.
Scrabble, the definition of which is “to grope or scratch frantically” (sounds about right, given my playing style), continues to be one of the leading board and tile games in the U.S., though the online version is increasingly popular.
It’s sold in 121 nations and played in 29 different languages. More than 150 million Scrabble sets have been sold overall. In 1984, the show Scrabble aired on NBC national television with host Chuck Woolery.
Today’s Google Doodle is celebrating the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which announced yesterday that its annual gala, a high-wattage celebration of both fashion and celebrity that was held virtually last year because of the pandemic will return in person over the next 12 months, not once, but twice.
An “intimate” version will be held on Sept. 13, and then the full shebang is planned for the gala’s usual slot of the first Monday in May. The gala will coincide with a two-part exhibition.
Part I, called “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”, opens Sept. .18 and celebrates the 75th anniversary of the museum’s Costume Institute. Part II, In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” will open in the museum’s popular American Wing period rooms on May 5, 2022.
Today’s weather is looking pretty good, compared to the mess that was yesterday. We’ll have partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low-to-mid 60s.
In the headlines…
The officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop near Minneapolis mistakenly confused her gun for her Taser, police officials said, quickly releasing video as they tried to ease tensions in a state on edge over the Derek Chauvin trial.
Judging from an initial review of police video footage of officers’ fatal encounter with Daunte Wright, 20, in the town of Brooklyn Center, Police Chief Tim Gannon said the shooting seemed to be unintentional. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.
Police bodycam footage shows the officer yelling “Taser! Taser!” as others struggled with Wright in his car.
President Joe Biden called for “peace and calm” in the wake of Wright’s “tragic” death, and described the body camera video of the shooting as “fairly graphic.”
The mayor of Brooklyn Center, Minn., was handed oversight of his city’s police department following Wright’s shooting death.
The shooting sparked two nights of protests in Brooklyn Center, where police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, and elsewhere across the nation.
In Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was shot by police just over a year ago, protesters blocked traffic with tables and chairs, chanting Wright’s name.
Demonstrations in New York City were relatively peaceful — protesters blocked roads and the Manhattan Bridge in solidarity, but no arrests were made.
Prosecutors called their last witness yesterday after 11 days of testimony designed to bolster their argument that former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck and back for more than nine minutes.
A Virginia police officer accused of pepper-spraying a Black and Latino military officer and forcing him to the ground in December has been fired, the Town of Windsor said in a statement.
A woman may serve as secretary of the Army in the Department of Defense for the first time. Biden will tap Christine Wormuth, a former adviser for the Defense Department during former President Barack Obama’s terms in office, for the job.
Biden is preparing to nominate a slate of ambassadors, and among them will be Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was a key backer of the president during the 2020 election.
Biden nominated Anne Milgram, a former New Jersey attorney general, to direct the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Justice Department’s lead agency for investigating drug trafficking and manufacturing.
Facing opposition from Republicans and some centrist Democrats to parts of his infrastructure proposal, Biden convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House, hoping to make progress toward a deal that can pass a divided Congress.
Biden said he’s “prepared to negotiate” the size of the $2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure package and also how to pay for it.
New York has had a “systemic lack of investment” in public transit, roads, bridges and other infrastructure, causing excessive commutes and disparities in everything from housing and child care to internet access and drinking water, the Biden administration said.
The U.S. budget deficit grew to a record $1.7 trillion in the first half of the fiscal year as a third round of stimulus payments sent federal spending soaring last month.
Michigan can’t vaccinate its way out of a COVID-19 spike, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing, during which she called on the state “to close things down.”
A more transmissible coronavirus variant first detected in Britain does not cause more severe illness in hospitalized patients, according to a new study that contradicts earlier findings that linked the variant with increased Covid-related disease and death.
People infected late last year with the variant, known as B.1.1.7, had more virus in their bodies than patients infected with older strains, a sign the newer variant is more infectious, the study found.
Younger people who haven’t been vaccinated are helping drive a rise in new Covid-19 cases, health officials are finding.
A small Israeli study indicates that some of the new coronavirus variants may put people who have been vaccinated at higher risk of breakthrough infections, though U.S. health officials questioned some of the wording used in the preliminary research.
It’s possible that some level of protection from Covid vaccines could last for years or even decades, some scientists say, but we don’t know.
New York City health officials said that infections with the coronavirus variant that first emerged in Britain, B.1.1.7, have been increasing in every borough, but slightly more in southern Brooklyn, eastern Queens, and Staten Island.
New Yorkers who lost loved ones to COVID-19 can finally get help from the federal government to cover the costs of funeral and burial arrangements, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced.
A Brooklyn man found out that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus — more than two weeks after getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
New York State will provide a new, separate allocation of 35,000 vaccines to address the college student population at SUNY schools and private colleges.
New York will allow high schools and colleges to have indoor or outdoor graduation ceremonies this spring with strict attendance limitations and — for mid-to-large size ceremonies — a COVID-19 vaccine or testing requirement.
“This has been a long year,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters. “The graduation ceremonies, we think are important, and we hope schools have graduation ceremonies. We just want them safe and we want them smart.”
Starting later this month, about 51,000 New York City public school students who have been learning remotely for the past year – including middle and high schoolers – will be able to return to classrooms, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.
“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda joined de Blasio at the grand opening of a Times Square COVID-19 vaccination site intended to jump-start the city’s entertainment industry.
Not only will the new center help get the city’s theater employees inoculated and get the industry back onstage, but it will also help employ 80 to 100 Broadway workers who have been laid off to handle administrative support tasks.
Live music has returned to New York City, though more with a whisper than a roar.
Less than 10 days after Cuomo lifted New York’s longstanding coronavirus quarantine requirement for domestic travelers, the state has announced international travelers who are asymptomatic need no longer self-isolate either.
In more than 30 interviews, women and men who have worked in Albany — including aides, lobbyists, government officials and elected leaders — described a predatory and misogynistic culture that is of a piece with Cuomo’s alleged bad behavior.
Democratic state Sen. Julia Salazar, of Brooklyn, says an older male Republican colleague, now retired, once told her she looked “like a Bond girl” while in the legislative chamber.
The families of nursing home residents who died after contracting the coronavirus are urging state Attorney Letitia James to launch a criminal probe of Cuomo’s actions during the pandemic.
The TU obtained emails showing that in 2019, Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, did political work related to campaign polling on state time. She also instructed lower-level staff to perform a task related to the poll.
Cuomo will appoint three new judges to New York’s highest court this year, and a group of state lawmakers is asking that at least one of them be representative of the LGBTQ+ community after the court’s only openly gay judge retired this year.
Cuomo said he might make an endorsement in the New York City mayor’s race and two candidates — Andrew Yang and Ray McGuire — said they’d welcome the scandal-scarred gov’s support with open arms.
“I have not exercised, or voiced, an opinion, but I’m watching and I may,” Cuomo said.
Yang teared up while describing what he called a “difficult” decision to give away his Havanese dog, Grizz, to a friend after his allergic son had a respiratory attack.
Mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia took a personal tone as she touted her new plan to guarantee a permanent home for every kid in the city’s foster-care system. She was one of three adopted children in her family.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang backpedaled after kicking up a controversy with a tweet seemingly calling for a crackdown on unlicensed street vendors, saying he doesn’t want to punish vendors and picked a poor platform to address a complex topic.
Fear of crime and harassment in New York City subways is keeping many New Yorkers out of the system even as COVID-19 restrictions start to loosen, according to a survey released by the MTA.
The survey found that riders are more concerned about crime and harassment on trains and in stations now than they were six months ago. It also found that fear of crime is an impediment to people returning to the system.
The CUNY board of trustees yanked a planned $3 million no-bid COVID-19 contract with powerhouse consulting firm McKinsey & Co. after facing criticism that it was unnecessary.
The NYPD’s practice of using no-knock warrants is being reviewed after several botched or questionable raids were highlighted by the Daily News, de Blasio said.
Albany County officials said they’re due to receive a shipment of over 3,500 Pfizer vaccines this week and will be earmarking “a large percentage” of them for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Spencer Hellwig, the former Saratoga County administrator fired in the fallout over a decision to pay extra money to department heads and other employees early on in the pandemic, plans to sue the government he once ran and nine of its supervisors.
As it hurdles towards a primary contest, the Schenectady City Council is embroiled in increasingly heated infighting and political combat.
Federal agents investigating one of their own concluded that an FBI field office director in Albany sexually harassed eight female subordinates including one who carried a ruler to smack his hands when he reached for her. He retired with full benefits.
The University at Albany and the New York Power Authority last week began construction on an approximately 1.8 megawatt solar project that will cover nearly all the campus’ available Academic Podium roof space.
The Albany County Legislature adopted Local Law C, which allows for surveillance cameras to be used to catch and prosecute drivers who pass a stopped school bus.
The Albany Empire needs a new head coach as it gets ready for its first game in the National Arena League next month. Rob Keefe announced on Twitter he is resigning to pursue other opportunities.
Civil Service Commissioner Lola Brabham is departing to lead the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York, the group announced. She will be the first person of color to hold that job.
Harvey Weinstein was secretly indicted on rape charges in Los Angeles County and objected to his transfer from New York to California to face trial.
Actor Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua said they are moving the production of their coming film “Emancipation” out of Georgia, citing the state’s controversial voting law.
A federal judge approved a partial settlement in the long-running dispute over equal pay between U.S. Soccer and its World Cup-winning women’s national team, but the players’ fight with the federation is far from over.
For the 24th straight year, Wegmans was named to the 2021 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. This year, the supermarket chain was ranked No. 4.
