Good morning, we have officially reached peak mid-week, AKA Wednesday. Hang in there, we’re almost over the hump.
Perhaps you will consider celebrating this milestone by indulging in a quintessential American (well, not really, but we’ll get to that) food – the hot dog. It’s National Hot Dog Day….and thanks the the miracle of modern food science, even if you are vegan you can have your not-dog and eat it, too.
This day is celebrated annually on the third Wednesday in July. A number of retailers are marking the day with special deals, including 7-Eleven, which made its debut in the Albany area not too terribly long ago.
Though hot dogs have come to be synonymous with America’s passion for outdoor grilling, the practice of stuffing meat (or faux meat) into a casing actually dates back – legend has it – to ancient Rome. It’s also very much identified as the favorite food of Germany, which boasts far too many versions of sausage to count.
Two German towns claim to be the original birthplace of the modern hot dog. Frankfurt says its brainwave of putting meat into a casing and grilling it occurred in 1484 – eight years before Columbus set sail for America. But the people of Vienna (Wien, in German) insist they are the true originators of the “wienerwurst.”
There is no denying that the man who is most often credited with popularizing the hit dog here in the U.S. was a Jewish immigrant from Poland named Nathan Handwerker.
In 1915, he sliced buns at a hot dog stand at Coney Island, where, legend has it, he lived entirely on hot dogs and slept on the kitchen floor for a year until he’d saved $300, enough to start a competing stand and charged only 5 cents per dog, knowing his former boss was charging 10.
He put his ex-boss out of business, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Oh, and in case you keep up with these sorts of things, as I do, professional eater and defending hot dog eating champ Joey Chestnut broke his own world record recently. He somehow consumed 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes during Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest and neither threw up nor exploded.
It was the 14th time that Chestnut, the top-ranked hot dog eater in the world (imagine being able to say that about yourself?!), had won the title in the last 15 years.
And if you’re interested in the competitive eating world, which is a fascinating place, allow me to recommend this book – a good summer read, if you’re in the market.
Today would have been the 70th birthday of comedian Robin Williams, who took his own life in August 2014 at the age of 63.
As much as it pains me to write this, there’s rain in the forecast again. Thunderstorms, to be exact. They’ll be around in the morning, and then there will be a chance of more in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the low 70s.
In the headlines…
The United States yesterday carried out an air strike against al Shabaab militants in Somalia, the first strike in the country since President Joe Biden came into office.
The airstrike targeted al Shabaab fighters in the city of Galkayo, which is in the central part of the country on Africa’s east coast, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the Pentagon.
Biden welcomed the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the White House, praising the team for helping the country get through the pandemic with some sense of normalcy, and trading some zingers with MVP quarterback Tom Brady.
Haiti’s national police announced they had arrested three police officers in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, suggesting there may have been an infiltration of their force ahead of the killing.
Haiti’s government has appointed Ariel Henry as the new prime minister after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
The House passed a bill largely along party lines that aims to revive the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) authority to return money to constituents harmed by companies found to engage in deceptive practices.
The House approved five bipartisan measures designed to enhance various aspects of the nation’s cybersecurity following recent major cyberattacks.
Biden’s senior advisers speak frequently about the sense of urgency facing his presidency, with the next year almost certain to be dominated by midterm elections that could take away the Democratic majorities in Congress he needs to pass his agenda.
The Knight Foundation will invest $5 million in research projects aimed at addressing online misinformation with a focus on the impact on communities of color, the non-profit organization said.
Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a close friend of former President Donald Trump and one of his top 2016 campaign fund-raisers, was arrested in California on federal charges of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.
In a seven-count indictment, court papers charged that Barrack, 74, of Santa Monica, Calif., agreed to advocate for the appointment of officials in the administration favored by the Middle Eastern country and to leak nonpublic information to a foreign agent.
The White House said that it would nominate Jonathan Kanter to be the top antitrust official at the Justice Department, a move that would add another longtime critic of Big Tech and corporate concentration to a powerful regulatory position.
Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years in 2020, the biggest decline since at least World War II, as the Covid-19 pandemic killed hundreds of thousands and exacerbated crises in drug overdoses, homicides and some chronic diseases.
The House Ethics Committee announced that it is upholding $500 fines against three additional GOP lawmakers for refusing to wear masks on the House floor while it was still required during the pandemic.
Several congressional staff members, Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan and a White House official have all tested positive for COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated, the attending physician for Congress said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul accused each other of lying during a contentious Senate hearing on Capitol Hill.
Kentucky Republican state Rep. Regina Huff sparked a wave of backlash after comparing Fauci to cult leader Jim Jones, infamous for causing hundreds of deaths in a mass suicide in the ’70s.
As the coronavirus’s Delta variant rips through conservative communities, most Republicans remain reluctant to confront vaccine misinformation and skepticism in their midst.
The Biden administration has once again renewed a declaration that a “public health emergency” exists due to the continued spread of the coronavirus.
The president touted the progress the U.S. has made against the coronavirus pandemic but acknowledged that the country has a long way to go amid a rise in cases due to the delta variant.
The coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is much less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus, according to a new study posted online.
The United States could see a wave of Covid-19 vaccine mandates as soon as the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to one or more of the shots, public health experts predicted.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that Republicans “support” coronavirus vaccinations, but just want “transparency.”
The more contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 now makes up 83% of sequenced samples in the United States, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.
Even as its high-profile hosts rail against the idea, Fox Corporation, the right-wing talk channel’s parent company, has quietly implemented the concept of a vaccine passport as workers slowly return back to the company’s offices.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban presented Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley with an offer that he may not be able to refuse: a share in Pfizer stock for his wife.
Beasley said he’ll get vaccinated against COVID-19 if he receives a profit from the shot.
The Olympics are turning out to be very costly for Japan.
The head organizer of the Tokyo Olympics said the Games may still be cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
The U.S. softball team, behind the pitching of Cat Osterman, 38, defeated a tenacious Italy team, 2-0, as softball returned to the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
Poland’s national swimming team sent six athletes home from the Tokyo Olympic Games after selecting too many by mistake.
Poland had sent 23 swimmers to Japan but the PZP was forced to cut the squad down to 17 based on world governing body FINA’s qualifying rules.
Tokyo Olympic officials are closely monitoring the waterway where canoeing and rowing events are to take place for an unusual threat: rogue oysters.
A Ugandan weightlifter has been found after fleeing his pre-Olympics training camp in western Japan last week.
The Mexican national baseball team is in quarantine after two players tested positive for coronavirus ahead of traveling to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics, Mexican baseball federation officials announced.
New York’s ethics oversight agency is investigating a series of phone calls made by a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which some county executives felt improperly mixed politics with vaccine distribution efforts.
The governor was noticeably absent when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the U.S. Commerce Secretary appeared in the Capital Region for the announcement of a major expansion at GlobalFoundries in Malta.
Republicans want stage agencies to investigate New York’s spike in crime and whether it is related to the oft-politicized bail reforms, which were passed in 2019 by a Democratic-led legislature, but the state may be unbecoming to taking on that task.
The Port Authority can proceed with $2.1 billion plans to build a monorail train between LaGuardia Airport and eastern Queens, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
After raising fares on a regular cycle, the agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will not move on what had been a proposed 4 percent increase, Patrick J. Foye, the chairman and chief executive of the M.T.A., said.
For thousands of food truck operators and cart vendors in New York, the ability to make meaningful profits depends on large numbers of workers returning to the office.
A trio of major pharmaceutical distributors has agreed to pay New York $1.1 billion as part of an ongoing legal effort to hold drug companies accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic, Attorney General Letitia James’ office announced.
Local health authorities in hot spots around the U.S. are seeking to blunt the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 by trying to boost stagnating vaccination rates while largely stopping short of re-instituting rules and restrictions.
Mayor Bill de Blasio will issue an order today requiring staff at the city’s public hospitals to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly coronavirus testing, as New York continues to see a troubling uptick in COVID-19 cases.
The new city policy takes aim at improving vaccination rates at public hospitals. Across the city, 70 percent of hospital workers are fully vaccinated.
The Board of Elections certified Eric Adams as the winner of the city’s Democratic mayoral race after a grueling, four-week wait that was made all the more stressful by a ballot tabulation error that has sparked calls for overhauling the embattled agency.
Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, received 404,513 votes or 50.4 percent to 397,316 votes or 49.6 percent for Garcia, the former city sanitation commissioner under de Blasio.
De Blasio pulled out a fake outsized check during his daily briefing to demonstrate how much cash the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is missing out on by dragging its feet on implementing congestion pricing in Manhattan.
Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein is on his way to California to stand trial for the second time on rape and sexual assault charges.
Weinstein, serving a 23-year sentence for felony sex crimes in New York, had challenged the extradition, arguing that he wouldn’t receive adequate medical care in a West Coast jail. A New York judge denied his request, paving the way for the transfer.
Nxivm leader Keith Raniere has been ordered to pay almost $3.5 million in restitution to his victims.
“Virtually all low-ranking members of D.O.S. were victims of a conspiracy” involving forced labor, the judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis, of Federal Court in Brooklyn, said, adding that members were also directed to perform sexual acts by “higher-ranking members.”
A screaming match erupted in a Brooklyn courtroom between a federal judge and a lawyer for Raniere, and it got so heated the judge threatened to have the lawyer arrested.
An emotionally charged Saratoga Springs City Council meeting fell into chaos last night with shouting, name-calling, threat of arrest and demands for resignations. BLM activists packed the event.
The mass vaccination site at Queensbury Aviation Mall will stop operating as the state shifts its vaccination strategy to more localized efforts.
The City of Albany’s police officers decisively voted 133 to 55 to form an independent PBA, clearing the way for the department’s rank and file to break away from Council 82 and negotiate a new contract.
Federal officials so far have resisted calls for reciprocity on the country’s northern border, after Canada announced it would welcome vaccinated U.S. residents starting August 9.
Construction has started this week on the first of what will be five new high-speed electric vehicle charging stations at Stewart’s Shops in the Capital Region and Adirondacks.
The Troy Waterfront Farmers Market will stick to Riverfront Park for now and not spread out back into downtown streets, market organizers said.
Stuyvesant Plaza said that Uncommon Grounds will open a new location where Bruegger’s Bagels has been operating.
Britney Spears’ anti-conservatorship crusade led two U.S. House lawmakers to unveil a new bipartisan bill aimed at protecting people in legal guardianships.
“I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this,” Jeff Bezos said during a news conference after his spaceflight.
The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Phoenix Suns in the N.B.A. finals in six games for their first title in 50 years.
