Good Tuesday morning. The end of August is officially upon us.
And it’s National Trail Mix Day.
In today’s version of “did you have any idea?”…trail mix is also known as….wait for it….scroggin in Australia, and schmogle in New Zealand.
Here in the U.S. it’s sometimes referred to as gorp – typically said to be an acronym for “good ol’ raisins and peanuts” or, if you prefer “granola, oats, raisins and peanuts.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the verb gorp, means “to eat greedily”, so that makes sense. Have you ever gobbled gorp down by the handful halfway up the side of an Adirondack mountain? I rest my case.
Yes, it’s true, the iconic and lightweight hiking/outdoor activity snack that typically contains a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes (preferably, in my opinion), chocolate, has its very own day of recognition.
The idea is that the carbs in the candy, fruit and/or granola provide a quick energy burst, while the calorie-dense fats in the nuts burn more slowly to keep you moving over time.
Some version of trail mix was eaten by Native Americans and originally included Buffalo meat.
The more modern combination of nuts, raisins and chocolate dates back to at least the 1910s, when an outdoorsman named Horace Kephart recommended it in his popular camping guide.
Kephart, who was instrumental in the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, wrote in his 1919 Camping & Woodcraft: A Handbook for Vacation Campers & for Travelers in the Wilderness: “A handful each of shelled nuts and raisins, with a cake of sweet chocolate, will carry a man far on the trail, or when he has lost it.”
Trail mix is also featured in Jack Kerouac’s iconic 1958 novel “The Dharma Bums”, which pre-dates another gorp original story about a pair of hungry surfers creating the mix for sustained wave-riding energy in 1968.
These days, trail mix might include anything from pretzels and M&Ms (yes, please) to candied ginger, sesame sticks, dried edamame or even Wasabi peas.
Any way you mix it up, it’s basically downright delicious.
It will be slightly cooler today, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 70s. We’ll start off with a mix of sun and clouds, and move to mostly cloudy skies by the afternoon.
In the headlines…
The last U.S. plane has departed Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced, marking the end of America’s longest war and leaving the country’s future in disarray and uncertainty under Taliban rule.
American diplomats have left Afghanistan, and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul will remain closed, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said, after the military announced that it had completed its withdrawal from the country.
Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, said some American citizens who wanted to leave Afghanistan remain in country.
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution requiring the Taliban to honour their commitment to let people freely leave Afghanistan, but the measure did not include a “safe zone” mentioned by French President Emmanuel Macron.
An Afghan family says an errant U.S. missile killed 10 people – including 7 children. Relatives, friends and colleagues of Zemari Ahmadi angrily dismissed any suggestion he had ties to ISIS-K. The U.S. military is investigating.
A cargo building at JFK Airport was converted into a processing center for refugees fleeing Afghanistan — and many may end up temporarily living in the building.
The White House says Biden won’t push Congress for a renewal of jobless aid a week before it expires.
Biden’s defense budget may be headed for another defeat at the hands of Democrats on Capitol Hill.
A federal judge struck down a Trump-era environmental rule that drastically limited federal restrictions against pollution of millions of streams, wetlands and marshes across the country.
Every state is growing warmer, with higher temperatures fueled by everything from powerful ocean currents and giant coal-fired power plants to commuters, cows, and leaky old buildings.
Hate crimes in the U.S. rose about 6% last year, fueled by an increase in anti-Asian, anti-Black and antiwhite incidents, according to FBI statistics released yesterday, reaching levels not seen in more than a decade.
As people across southeastern Louisiana began to take in the scale of damage from Hurricane Ida, a task hindered by widespread power outages and limited phone service, search-and-rescue teams responded to calls for help that had gone unanswered.
New Orleans and its hardened storm infrastructure appeared to have held up, though the city had no electricity. But with parts of Louisiana still unreachable, the full extent of the wreckage remained unclear.
Energy companies were assessing the health of refineries, pipelines, petrochemical plants and offshore oil platforms along the central Gulf of Mexico, the day after Ida struck Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 hurricane.
Entergy Corp’s challenge in restoring power after Hurricane Ida extends well beyond New Orleans as it repairs widespread wind damage to much of its transmission system.
Switzerland and Puerto Rico are now among the highest-risk destinations for travelers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s regularly updated travel advisories list.
European Union countries voted to subject the U.S. to fresh restrictions on nonessential travel amid a surge in new coronavirus cases, dealing a blow to the tourism industry.
Australia is set to end its “covid zero” policy after Prime Minister Scott Morrison determined that the country’s approach is not “sustainable” in the face of the more infectious COVID-19 delta variant.
South African scientists said they identified a new coronavirus variant that has a concerning number of mutations.
Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are highly effective against both coronavirus infection and severe covid-19, Israeli scientists reported in a new paper that supports the idea of administering a third dose as protection against the virus wanes.
Moderna Inc.’s Covid vaccine generated more than double the antibodies of a similar shot made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in research directly comparing immune responses to the inoculations.
Overall effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines has not dropped much yet for most vaccinated Americans, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers were told.
A prominent lawyer has not been appearing at recent court hearings on behalf of some of his nearly 20 US Capitol riot clients after reportedly becoming ill with Covid-19, the Department of Justice said in court filings in multiple cases.
The U.S. Education Department has initiated investigations into five states whose prohibitions on universal mask mandates in schools may run afoul of civil rights laws protecting students with disabilities, federal officials announced.
As children head back to class, workers at community programs, schools and government agencies are mobilizing to help repair the damage kids suffered during the pandemic.
Prescriptions for ivermectin have jumped to more than 88,000 per week, some pharmacists are reporting shortages and people are overdosing on forms of the drug meant for horses.
A suburban Cincinnati woman, whose husband has been on a ventilator in the hospital with COVID-19, won a court order forcing the hospital to treat her husband’s virus with an anti-parasitic livestock drug, despite a CDC warning against it.
A former CIA agent who bought into QAnon conspiracy culture has seemingly died from COVID.
The Florida Department of Education has withheld funds from two school districts that made masks mandatory, state officials announced, making good on a threat that local school boards that required students to wear masks would be punished financially.
New Jersey will end special unemployment benefits put in place during the pandemic when they expire on Saturday, rather than using federal relief funds to extend them, the state’s governor announced.
All but 10 of New York’s 62 counties are now at the highest level of COVID-19 spread, meaning masks are recommended to be worn indoors, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This year’s New York Caribbean Carnival Parade festivities will be substantially scaled back due to continuing concerns about the coronavirus, the highly contagious delta variant and the fact that 35% of New Yorkers remain unvaccinated for COVID-19.
State lawmakers reportedly plan to extend New York’s pandemic-related eviction moratorium through mid-January in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down a federal version of the freeze last week.
Lawmakers are expected back in the Capitol tomorrow or Thursday to address the state’s expiring eviction moratorium, including tweaking policies to work within the parameters of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on emergency relief to renters.
New York’s largest landlord group is threatening to sue the state Legislature if lawmakers extend the pandemic-era eviction moratorium slated to expire today, arguing the law negatively impacts property owners.
A special session could also see lawmakers take up additional bills – unfinished business from the regularly scheduled session of the Legislature that concluded in June.
In her first days as governor of New York, Kathy Hochul has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that whatever kind of leadership style she might adopt, it will be far from that of her disgraced predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
Hochul vowed to get to the bottom of an “unprecedented system breakdown” that caused a five-hour MTA service disruption Sunday, explaining that the “unacceptable” situation was caused by a brief ConEd power failure and a subsequent power surge.
“Let me be very clear. Last night was unacceptable. If you’re one of those riders, or people relying on safe transport, the system failed you,” Hochul said.
Con Edison spokeswoman Anne Marie Corbalis said “a fault to an underground transmission feeder in Long Island City, Queens, caused a momentary voltage disturbance last night.”
House Democrats representing the five boroughs are pressing Hochul to extend the state’s eviction moratorium.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, a GOP 2022 gubernatorial candidate, penned an op-ed in the NY Post entitled: “10 Steps Kathy Hochul Should Take To Get NY Moving In The Right Direction.”
Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney and John Katko are speaking out against the governor’s expected mask mandate for New York schools.
Hochul joined hundreds of other mourners, many of them fellow law enforcement officers, at the funeral yesterday for Trooper James J. Monda, who died Aug. 22 in Great Sacandaga Lake.
Key players in New York’s push to establish its marijuana market are encouraged that Hochul, who took office on Aug. 24, has said her nomination of cannabis regulators is a “priority.”
Hochul should publicly release all records regarding SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras’ role in preparing a discredited state Health Department report that covered up the true extent of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, lawmakers said.
Malatras was grilled by investigators for allegedly pitching in on Cuomo’s $5.1 million COVID-19 memoir during normal work hours.
Resigning from office probably didn’t end former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legal problems, and no matter what happens next, taxpayers are likely to wind up with a hefty bill.
Speculation is swirling that Cuomo has been holed up in the Hamptons at the home of his longtime pal Dr. Jeffrey A Sachs after leaving the Executive Mansion in Albany.
Law enforcement officials are issuing subpoenas to gather records in an ongoing investigation of allegations that Cuomo groped a female aide’s breast at the Executive Mansion in November.
Brittany Commisso, 33, spent “several hours” being interviewed in connection with the complaint she filed against Cuomo, 63, earlier this month, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said.
Allegations of sexual harassment cost Cuomo his job. Whether they can cost him his law license – or lead to any attorney discipline – is a far tougher question.
Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the city’s high crime rate on courts across the five boroughs, in the process revealing that they have rendered just 18 criminal verdicts in the first half of this year.
The troubled men’s homeless shelter on Wards Island has continued to deteriorate into an unsanitary COVID-19 nightmare, a group of elected city officials said after touring the facility.
The racketeering trial of the R&B star R. Kelly resumed in Brooklyn with the testimony of two new accusers, including the first male accuser to take the stand against the singer.
City and higher education officials are trying to crack down after back-to-back weekends drew crowds of up to 2,000 people to raucous parties in Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood.
The Upstate Conservative Coalition says it will host controversial speaker Scott Presler at a Green Island business tomorrow night.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and her husband announced the birth of their first child, a son born last Friday morning at Saratoga Hospital.
Starbucks workers in the Buffalo area announced that they were forming a union and have filed petitions from employees at three stores in the area asking the National Labor Relations Board to hold elections on union representation.
Walt Disney Co. and its ABC unit held unsuccessful mediation talks in June with the two women who have alleged they were sexually assaulted by a former ABC News executive.
