Good Monday morning.
I have a confession to make: I am not a big fan of milk as a beverage.
I like cheese. I like ice cream. I love greek yogurt and even cottage cheese. But milk as a drink? No.
Now, to clarify, I’m speaking here of cow’s milk. I do like almond milk and also sometimes cashew milk, in a pinch, which I put in my smoothies and my coffee and also use for baking. I am NOT on the oat milk train. Sorry, it tastes like nothing to me. And hemp milk? Ugh.
It might have something to do with growing up in a household that kept kosher – at least during my formative years. I don’t personally keep kosher anymore, but the idea of mixing milk with meat – even a cheeseburger – kind of turns my stomach.
Anyway, this is all a big run up to the fact that today is National Chocolate Milk Day. I like chocolate milk, oddly, it’s the exception to the rule.
Though I prefer it hot to cold, even though cold chocolate milk is having something of a moment as it is a known post-exercise recovery drink. (Apparently, it contains many of the same electrolytes you get in those non-dairy recovery beverages – calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium).
Yup. Chocolate milk. It’s good for what ails you, even though some public school cafeterias haven’t gotten that message.
There’s a lot of debate over the best way to make chocolate milk – syrup, powder, melted chocolate. Sir Hans Sloane, an Irish botanist, is credited with bringing the idea of adding chocolate to milk to make it more palatable back to England after being introduced to the idea during a trip to Jamaica in the 1700s.
The Jamaicans were reportedly brewing “a hot beverage brewed from shavings of freshly harvested cacao, boiled with milk and cinnamon” as far back as 1494. Also chocolate has been known to humans as far back as 350 B.C., so it’s kind of hard to think that NO ONE thought to mix it with milk before Solane was credited for doing so.
For our purposes, I think it’s safe to say that chocolate milk is an acceptable and delicious beverage anytime of the day or night.
Warm milk, as you might have heard, has a longstanding reputation for putting people to sleep, though adding sugar to the mix might not be the best idea in that situation…also, sadly experts say there’s not actually enough tryptophan in one serving of milk to make you drowsy.
There, I have done my part on behalf of New York’s dairy industry today.
And a very happy 23rd birthday to Google, which doesn’t look a day over 22.
After a stretch of absolutely glorious weather this past weekend, we’re in for a mostly cloudy day with the chance of a passing shower. Temperatures will be in the mid-70s.
In the headlines…
The World Health Organization is reviving its stalled investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 virus as agency officials warn that time is running out to determine how the pandemic that has killed more than 4.7 million people world-wide began.
The pandemic may not be over, but trick-or-treating should be fine, with safety precautions, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
A crisis-management playbook Federal Reserve officials created years ago could guide their response this fall if the federal government can’t pay all its bills because of a political standoff over raising the federal debt limit.
From March 2020 to April 2021, an estimated 1.1 million children lost a primary caregiver to the virus, according to a recent study in the medical journal the Lancet.
Walensky said that individuals eligible for COVID-19 booster shots should figure out for themselves whether a third dose is necessary.
Dozens of violent disturbances took place in Norway amid celebrations that followed the government’s abrupt removal of all COVID-19 restrictions.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla pushed back against calls to waive the company’s intellectual property rights to its COVID-19 vaccine for what critics claim will speed up vaccine distribution in poorer countries.
Pfizer/BioNTech plans to ask for authorization of a Covid-19 vaccine for children under 12 soon, bringing the U.S. one step closer to offering protection to a population that has grown particularly vulnerable as the fall season gets underway.
“I think we are going to submit this data any day, so it’s a question of days, not weeks, and then it’s up to the FDA to be able to review the data and come to their conclusions,” Bourla told ABC TV’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos.
U.S. health authorities say they are confident there is enough vaccine available for older Americans seeking booster shots and young children for whom initial doses are expected to be approved soon.
Face-mask requirements in schools drastically reduce the spread of Covid-19 among children, two studies published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest.
Ana Navarro, one of two co-hosts who were pulled from ABC’s “The View” live on air Friday due to positive COVID-19 tests, has since revealed the results that caused the chaos were false positives.
The American supply chain has so far failed to adapt to the crush of imports as businesses rush to restock pandemic-depleted inventories.
A slew of high-stakes deadlines will collide on Capitol Hill this week, setting up potentially chaotic negotiations against the backdrop of expiring government funding and the threat of a possible U.S. default.
Congress will miss today’s deadline to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, and another more pricey and less popular measure faces likely cuts this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Pelosi said that the House would vote on a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Thursday, giving Democrats more time to reach a consensus on President Joe Biden’s sprawling domestic policy package.
Nobody said it would be easy, but the multiple tasks piling up for Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer present a particularly daunting set of challenges.
Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have narrowly won the country’s federal elections, beating the party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to preliminary results.
The close outcome means the Social Democrats, with only 25.7 percent of the vote, must team up with other parties to form a government.
Biden hadn’t heard Germany’s election results when he returned to Washington from his weekend retreat yesterday, but he complimented the projected winner.
A group opposed to New York City’s vaccine requirement for restaurants and other indoor activities stormed a Staten Island food court over the weekend — refusing to show proof-of-inoculation before sitting down to eat.
A federal appeals court issued a temporary injunction against a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for New York City educators set to go into effect early next week, temporarily blocking enforcement while the case is sent to a three-judge circuit court panel for review.
A judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted the injunction on a temporary basis and referred the case to a panel of three judges for review.
New York hospitals are bracing for mass staffing shortages as the state deadline for health care workers to get vaccinated hits today.
Health care skeptics fighting the vaccine mandate see their work as a badge of credibility, and the order from their bosses and the state to make a choice — get vaccinated or get fired — as a betrayal
Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering deploying the medically trained members of the National Guard ahead of an anticipated shortage of health care workers.
“We are still in a battle against COVID to protect our loved ones, and we need to fight with every tool at our disposal,” Hochul said in a statement.
At the same time, hospitals, nursing homes, rehab and other facilities are restricting new admissions, suspending elective surgeries and making one last big push to convince workers to take the vaccine.
Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse will temporarily close 22 of its 35 operating rooms starting today in anticipation of a growing staff shortage due to New York’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Hochul says COVID-19 booster shots are available throughout the state as of Saturday.
The Hochul administration is launching a massive new weekly coronavirus testing program for the thousands of state workers expected to refuse to get vaccinated by the Oct. 12 deadline.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras fired off a memo to the heads of state-university-run hospitals warning them to notify their employees that if workers refuse to get vaccination by today, they’ll see “immediate suspension and pending termination.”
Hochul has launched a purge of agency heads and other officials appointed by her disgraced predecessor Andrew Cuomo — with at least nine bureaucrats either resigning or being told they’ll be out of a job within the next few days.
Hochul did not endorse the decriminalization of sex work this week – but she is already taking a very different approach to the issue compared to past governors.
Elected officials and transit advocates demonstrated outside Hochul’s Midtown office yesterday demanding she speed up the MTA congestion pricing program to toll motorists driving south of 60th St. in Manhattan.
Hochul was in Glens Falls on Saturday to announce 11 newly certified Climate Smart communities. Three of them are in the Capital Region.
Cordell Cleare has won the Democratic nomination to appear on the special election ballot for the 30th Senate District seat, which had recently been vacated by Brian Benjamin after he became lieutenant governor.
Chris Cuomo, the CNN host and brother of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has been accused of sexual harassment by his former boss at ABC News.
Shelley Ross, a journalist who has served as producer at ABC and CBS, in a New York Times essay published Friday alleged that Cuomo “sexually harassed me at a going-away party for an ABC colleague” in 2005.
AG Tish James’ office spent more than $2 million to outside attorneys who investigated claims against Cuomo.
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa says New York’s next police commissioner should be a career NYPD cop, preferably Latino.
Sliwa showed up to judge the Feast of San Gennaro’s meatball eating contest — only to be told he was “too political” to appear on stage, he claimed in a Facebook video recorded at the event.
After Hurricane Ida’s historic lashing of New York City delivered a wake-up call on the perils of global warming, the overwhelming favorite in the city’s mayoral race, Eric Adams, poured new detail into his plan to improve the city’s climate-change resiliency.
Adams said that closing the Willowbrook State School was “a mistake” and an “overreaction.”
Disability advocates were furious about Adams’ comments, but said they’re going to take the high road and turn the negative situation into a positive.
Adams spent his summer vacation living the high life in exclusive Monaco — a tiny country on the French Riviera known for natural beauty and decadence.
De Blasio and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have announced a 15-year, $191 million Offshore Wind Vision (OSW) plan to make New York City a leading destination for the offshore wind industry.
A New York City Council staffer says she faced retaliation after reporting a supervisor for disparaging minorities — conduct she said Council Speaker Corey Johnson wanted swept under the rug.
Obsolete manufacturing standards are suspected in most of the 65 scooter and e-bike battery fires that have killed three New Yorkers this year.
A group of congressional Democrats from New York called Biden on Friday to use federal resources to address the crisis at Rikers Island, expressing a lack of confidence in the city’s ability to restore order to the jail complex.
An FDNY fire marshal caught up in a scandal surrounding the “Motherless Brooklyn” blaze in Harlem that killed a veteran firefighter has been accused of sexually harassing a cleaning women inside a department building.
Facing a shortage of subway workers that’s crippled service for months, transit officials last week asked recently retired train operators to return to their old jobs.
The Guilderland school district has joined Albany, Bethlehem and Niskayuna schools in requiring athletes in high-risk sports be vaccinated against coronavirus to compete.
Over the summer, more than 40 arts organizations representing museums, theater companies, entertainment venues, live tours and more in the Capital Region’s four core counties received about $36 million in federal pandemic assistance.
City voters will decide whether to approve a $1.38 million budget for 2022 for the Troy Public Library when they go to the polls Tuesday.
The Tony Awards ceremony last night was unlike any that came before — still a mix of prizes and performances, but now with a mission to lure audiences back as the imperiled industry and the enduring art form seek to rebound.
After a 15-month pandemic delay, the 2020 Tony Awards saw “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” winning in an abridged field for best musical. Matthew Lopez’s two-part “The Inheritance” was crowned best play.
“Slave Play,” the buzzy and provocative drama that was nominated for 12 Tony Awards but won none, will return to Broadway this fall.
The death this month of Michael K. Williams, the Brooklyn actor most famous for his memorable portrayal of a gay stickup man in “The Wire,” was caused by an accidental drug overdose involving fentanyl, New York City’s medical examiner said.
Bobby Zarem, the famed publicist who came up with the “I Love New York” campaign and who was nicknamed “Super Flack,” has died of cancer at 84.
Reality star Duane Chapman — best known as Dog the Bounty Hunter — says he has joined the search for Gabby Petito’s fiancé, Brian Laundrie.
Touching tributes for Petito were displayed outside a Long Island funeral home ahead of a public viewing for the 22-year-old, a week after she was found dead in Wyoming.
A Fox affiliate news anchor in the Bay Area has been pulled off the air after he tried to add a tagline to his report on the homicide of Petito, noting the lack of coverage of many cases of missing and murdered women of color.
A former FedEx driver who vowed in a profanity-laced video to never deliver packages to houses championing the Black Lives Matter movement, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris has since been fired — and now won’t be delivering packages to any houses at all.
