Good Tuesday morning.
How does free french fries for life sound to you?
To me, it sounds like a recipe for disaster. I do not really know how to say “no” to french fries, and so I avoid them at all costs. You know what’s amazing? Fries fried in duck fat served with mayo as a dipping sauce. Yep. Carbs on fat on fat. Please and thank you.
Anyway, if you think you’re capable of more restraint than I am and perhaps could use your free fries for life pass only sparingly and in an appropriate manner, then perhaps this offer from McDonald’s to celebrate National French Fry Day is for you.
Of course, there are a number of one-off free fries offers just in honor of this momentous occasion. You can find a rundown of those here. (Note: Some of these chains are regional and not, sadly, applicable for those of us who live in New York).
Also, I’m sure those fry fans among us are aware that there is nothing French about fries. Nope. They originated in Belgium, sometime around the late 1600s, or so historians claim.
Apparently, poor villagers who lived along a certain river traditionally ate friend fish, but when the river froze and robbed them of their primary food source, they turned to the next best thing – fried root vegetables – in order to survive.
American soldiers who were in Belgium during World War I discovered the joy of fried potatoes and since the dominant language of southern Belgium is French, they dubbed the dish “French” fries.
Eh, voila.
Or maybe they did originate in France, or possibly Spain. Who knows? They are undoubtedly delicious no matter what their origin story. And no, baked fries – while decent – are not the same.
As for who introduced french fries to the U.S., that honor goes to none other than Thomas Jefferson, who encountered them while serving as American Minister to France from 1784 to 1789. Except the version he enjoyed was described as potatoes cut in quarter-inch slices or “in shavings round and round, as you would peal a lemon.”
BTW, home fries are basically french fries cut up into small, bite-sized pieces. So I say cut to the chase and eat fries for breakfast – if that’s your jam. (You JAM, see what I did there?)
And today in the forecast there is…wait for it…RAIN. Yes, rain. Showers in the morning, giving way to cloudy skies in the afternoon, with temperatures in the mid 70s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden met with U.S. police chiefs and elected officials at the White House to discuss his plan to address a continuing nationwide surge in gun violence.
While issues related to Russia, China and the Northern Triangle have been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s foreign policy priorities, violence and demonstrations taking place just off of America’s coast have forced the White House’s response.
Amid burgeoning foreign crises from Nicaragua to Afghanistan, Biden’s team wasn’t ready to turn its attention to Cuba. But over the weekend, the communist-run island nation became an unavoidable subject.
Biden, who has been criticized or failing to use his “bully pulpit” to defend voting rights, is set today to deliver an aggressive denunciation of Donald Trump’s “big lie” about a stolen election.
Texas Democrats fled the state yesterday in a last-ditch effort to prevent the passage of a restrictive new voting law by the Republican-controlled Legislature, heading to Washington to draw national attention to their cause.
At least 59 of the body’s 67 Democrats were expected to participate in the walkout, according to a source familiar with the plans, but the final number may not be known until the House is called to order this morning.
If all goes as planned, the Treasury Department will soon begin making a series of monthly payments to families with children, setting a milestone in social policy and intensifying a debate over whether to make the subsidies a permanent part of the safety net.
Approvals to drill for oil and gas on U.S. public lands are on pace to reach their highest level since George W. Bush was president, underscoring Biden’s reluctance to more forcefully curb petroleum production in the face of industry and GOP resistance.
The coronavirus vaccine blitz unleashed late last year saved 279,000 lives and prevented 1.25 million hospitalizations, according to a new study out of Yale.
Representatives of Pfizer met privately with senior U.S. scientists and regulators to press for swift authorization of coronavirus booster vaccines, amid growing public confusion about whether they will be needed and pushback from federal health officials.
The FDA is planning to warn that Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine can lead to an increased risk of a rare neurological condition known as Guillain–Barré syndrome, another setback for a vaccine that has largely been sidelined in the United States.
The warning comes after about 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré cases against a backdrop of about 12.5 million Johnson & Johnson doses administered, the FDA said in a statement.
Guillain-Barre syndrome occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks some of its nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis that typically is temporary. An estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop the syndrome annually.
The Biden administration is casting conservative opponents of its Covid-19 vaccine campaign as dangerous and extreme, adopting a more aggressive political posture in an attempt to maneuver through the public health conundrum.
The prospect of an extended lockdown in Sydney loomed as Australian health officials reported yet another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases for the year, fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant.
Hoping to combat a new wave of Covid-19 infections, French President Emmanuel Macron announced mandatory inoculation for health care workers and proof of immunization or a recent negative test to enter restaurants and cultural venues.
The U.S. averaged 19,455 new COVID-19 cases per day over the last seven days, a 47.5% increase from the previous week. And 43 states saw an increase in cases last week from the week before, a sign that the pandemic endures in the United States.
The U.S. has seen a string of COVID-19 outbreaks tied to summer camps in recent weeks in places such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, in what some fear could be a preview of the upcoming school year.
The mayor of Orange County, Fla. is asking residents to again wear face masks indoors as the county faces climbing COVID-19 positivity rates.
A U.S. tourist and three other travelers were ordered to leave the Indonesian island of Bali after breaking COVID-19 safety protocols.
People who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are still getting infected with the delta variant, but global health officials said the shots have protected most people from getting severely sick or dying.
The World Health Organization’s chief scientist advised against people mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers, calling it a “dangerous trend” since there was little data available about the health impact.
With coronavirus infections surging yet again, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Britons to keep wearing face masks in crowded, indoor spaces even as he promised to unlock England’s economy next week and lift almost all virus-related restrictions.
McDonald’s owners are adding emergency child care and other benefits, as many U.S. restaurants are struggling to hire enough workers to run their businesses.
Construction contractors, home cleaners and other service-based companies are struggling to find new work vehicles, a potential bottleneck in growing their businesses as demand for their services surges amid the rebounding economy.
Eric Adams, the favorite to become New York City’s next mayor, said after a White House meeting that he is known as “the Biden of Brooklyn” — though he rejected the president’s call to beef up police forces to combat the scourge of illegal guns.
Adams said after the sit-down with Biden that he does not necessarily see a need for growing out the NYPD if he takes over the reins at City Hall as expected next year.
Adams said it’s not fair for people to call him an “anti-woke Democrat.”
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa grumbled as his general-election foe, Adams, received what appeared to be the mayor-in-waiting treatment from the White House.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares took aim at Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a New York Post opinion piece after Cuomo’s announcement that gun crimes have become “a disaster emergency”.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to stick with a universal mask mandate in city schools this fall, despite new Centers for Disease Control guidance last week suggesting vaccinated kids and adults can safely ditch their masks inside classrooms.
An alarmingly low number of New York City nursing home staffers have been vaccinated for COVID-19, despite the danger the virus poses to elderly residents, a Post review of state Health Department data reveal.
The city’s Department of Correction has “real issues to be addressed,” de Blasio admitted the day after The Post exclusively reported how hundreds of fed-up guards have departed for the NYPD in recent years.
De Blasio shrugged off responsibility for dirty and disgusting public areas in the city’s criminal courthouses, claiming the buildings are state-owned.
Staten Island is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases at least partly because of the recent spread of the highly contagious Delta variant among unvaccinated New Yorkers, the city’s top doctor warned.
Four K-8 charter schools that planned to open a shared high school in New York City were rejected by the state Board of Regents, which accused the group of trying to circumvent the city’s cap on new charters.
After weeks of protests that included an overnight camp, Battery Park City residents were told that plans to build a monument there for essential workers had been paused amid demands for more community input.
Cuomo’s point person, Battery Park City Authority Chairman George Tsunis, said he’ll go back to the drawing board and allow local residents to serve on an expanded advisory committee to review options and have input in selecting a new design for the project.
In a newly reopened New York City, travel and hotel costs are still relatively low, enticing some young people, retirees and families to make the trip.
New York City’s Restaurant Week will be a week longer than in summer’s past, after restaurants faced unprecedented challenges related to COVID last year. The festival will feature in-person dining for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan has dropped plans for special exhibitions commemorating the 20th anniversary of what was perhaps the most traumatic day in modern American history, due in part to severe budget cuts.
Construction sheds are a necessary evil, meant to protect workers and passers-by. But recent efforts have reimagined them as experiential installations.
Hundreds of syringes have washed up on Jersey Shore beaches since last week’s tropical rainstorm — possibly caused by sewer runoff from New York City.
A high-profile legislative hearing on ethics was canceled yesterday amid concerns from some lawmakers that a virtual component of the proceeding would have violated the state’s Open Meetings Law.
The state’s first Independent Redistricting Commission called for the public to participate in its initial listening sessions, which are to start next week, as it prepares to redraw state legislative and congressional district lines in New York.
A coalition of labor unions, survivor and victim organizations, civil rights groups and legal services in an open letter called on top state lawmakers to reconvene in Albany and approve a bill that would seal and expunge criminal records in New York.
With the annual thoroughbred meet starting Thursday, the New York Racing Association is going down to the wire in a push to fully staff the Saratoga Race Course.
Proctors Collaborative is less than $800,000 away from the estimated $14 million it needs to fully restart the organization as live entertainment builds toward a full, post-pandemic schedule.
Maria Perreca Papa, whose family founded Perreca’s Bakery in 1913, is under contract to buy the next-door former home of Cornell’s in Little Italy, bringing together names that helped define Italian food in the Electric City for nearly 190 years combined.
David Bernsley, the principal at Edmund J. O’Neal Middle School of Excellence and Tony Clement Center for Education, will step down after two years on the job, with his resignation effective Aug. 31.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren yesterday returned to work after a nearly week-long stay in the hospital for treatment of salmonella poisoning.
Former Rep. Anthony Brindisi announced that he is going to run for New York Supreme Court Justice.
Allen Weisselberg, longtime chief of financial operations for the Trump Organization, has been removed as an officer at some of the company’s subsidiaries.
The move could be a potential precursor to a wider shake-up at the former president’s company, the Trump Organization, as the reality of the indictment takes hold for Donald Trump and his senior executives.
Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is now on record as the company’s executive vice president, director, secretary, treasurer and vice president. And second son Eric Trump is down as president, director and chairman on those records.
The scorching temperatures from the West’s third heat wave of the summer, which fueled quick-spreading wildfires and fears of power outages, began to ease slightly. But warnings of dangerous conditions continued in many places, with more in the forecast.
A record-breaking heat wave affecting the Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada has cooked millions of mussels, clams and other sea creatures alive.
IHOP is celebrating its 63rd anniversary by selling pancakes for 58 cents at restaurants nationwide today.
