Good Wednesday morning.
As much as I say that I yearn for a four-day workweek, I have to confess that when I actually get one, it sets me back for days from a work standpoint. There’s just not even enough time in five days to accomplish everything I need to get done, let alone four.
Anyway. Here’s something we can all get behind…maybe:
Today is National Dessert Day. (BTW, does anyone else use that old trick of telling “dessert” and “desert” apart by remembering that you want MORE desert and LESS hot sand, so there’s an additional “s” in that first one? No? Just me? OK, then).
So where was I?
Actually, all of October is National Dessert MONTH, in case you’re looking for an excuse to eat ALL the cider doughnuts, all the time. And, for what it’s worth, they’re really only good when they are fresh out of the oil and very, very hot, IMHO.
And honestly, I would say November or December would make more sense to host this particular month, because, well, pies and cookies and candy canes, etc. But, then again, Halloween. So, maybe it’s a tossup.
In case you can still find a Friendly’s Restaurant, and oh, do I miss their clam rolls, they’re offering 50 percent off any ice cream dessert or beverage to celebrate this day, though the deal is only available to Friendly’s Sweet Rewards Club members.
I couldn’t really find much information on the origin of this day, which if, of course, completely made up. I did, however, go down the internet rabbit hole on the history of desserts.
The English word “dessert” emerged in the 17th century and is derived from the French verb “desservir.” The tradition of finishing a meal with a little something sweet reportedly originated in France. Because, of course it did.
Originally, this course was known as “le fruit” and often featured (what else?) fruit-based items like jams or jellies, or maybe a little marzipan. After the French Revolution, the aristocratic “fruit” was fully replaced by “dessert” and things started to get very complex and fancy from there.
Of course, sweets themselves date back many, many centuries. They were fed to the gods in ancient civilizations. Dried fruit and honey were probably the first sweeteners, but the spread of sugarcane worldwide was essential to the development of modern dessert. (And, of course, we know that sugar has a very sordid and complicated past, more here).
Now, sugar itself is very divisive these days. There are those who will tell you it is poison and some research has shown it’s just as addictive as cocaine. Too much of anything – especially sugar – is generally considered not healthy, but the real problem is ADDED sugar, not naturally occurring sugar, and as a country, we in the U.S. have a tendency to add it to just about everything.
I’m not going to weigh in on this debate, because I feel like it might get me in trouble. I’ll just say that I’m not an “everything in moderation” sort of person – people who run ultra marathons don’t shy away from extremes. And so, I’m not a good judge of how best to curtail one’s impulses and passions.
I will, however, perhaps really live life on the edge have some stevia on my oatmeal this morning. I like to live on the wild side.
It will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-70s today.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden announced agreements with the largest U.S. port, retailers, and freight haulers to fix some kinks in the twisted global supply chain that have fed inflation, caused random shortages of goods, and threatens to disrupt holiday spending.
The Port of Los Angeles agreed to join its sister port, Long Beach, and start operating 24/7, the White House said.
In addition, Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Target, and Home Depot committed to sending more drivers to the ports in the expanded hours to remove shipping containers clogging the ports and get the products to shelves, and labor unions agreed to supply workers.
The White House described the effort as a “90-day sprint” to clear a path for cargo.
While the ports are indeed working to speed up the flow of goods, the reality is that it will take time for the busiest port complex in the country to significantly ramp up cargo movement, port officials said after the speech, adding that no terminal operates 24/7.
Consumer Price Index data from the Labor Department showed that prices kept climbing in September, as supply chain snarls and rising rents fueled rapid inflation.
In one of the most high-profile cases this term, the Supreme Court seems likely to side with the Biden administration and reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the East and West coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced by the Biden administration.
The projects are part of Biden’s plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that her agency will formally begin the process of identifying federal waters to lease to wind developers by 2025.
Vaccination rates against COVID-19 in the United States have risen by more than 20 percentage points after multiple institutions adopted vaccine requirements, while case numbers and deaths from the virus are down, Biden administration officials said.
COVID-19 was the leading of death among people ages 35 to 54 – and the second-leading cause overall – in September, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Peterson Center on Healthcare.
A highly anticipated study of “mixing and matching” Covid-19 vaccines found the approach to be safe and effective, although the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were found to spark stronger immune system responses than Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
Among people who originally received a J&J shot, antibody levels were four times higher after a J&J booster, 35 times higher after a Pfizer booster and 76 times higher after a Moderna booster.
Southwest and American Airlines, both based out of Texas, reportedly plan to continue requiring the vaccine for its employees despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s new ban on vaccine mandates this week.
Despite the dramatic increase in vaccinations and an encouraging dip in daily caseloads in the U.S., Sr. Anthony Fauci said that there is a long way to go before health experts can breathe easier.
The U.S. government will rely heavily on pediatricians and family doctors in its Covid-19 vaccine rollout for kids ages 5 to 11, starting as early as next month, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said.
Catholic U.S. troops should be allowed to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine based solely on conscientious objection and regardless of whether abortion-related tissue was used in its creation or testing, the archbishop for the military declared in a new statement.
An Indiana couple say they and their two children were mistakenly given the Covid-19 vaccine instead of a flu shot a week ago at their local Walgreens pharmacy – and they are now dealing with some adverse symptoms.
Black Americans were once far less likely than white Americans to be vaccinated. But a wave of pro-vaccine campaigns and a surge of virus deaths have narrowed that gap, experts say.
As coronavirus vaccines trickle into some of the poorest countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, data suggest some women are consistently missing out, in another illustration of how the doses are being unevenly distributed around the world.
Blackstone, the giant private equity firm, will require employees who want to work in its London office to be vaccinated beginning next week, as the American company takes a more forceful approach to vaccinations than many other businesses in Britain.
NBA star Kyrie Irving, who’s indefinitely barred from practicing or playing with the Brooklyn Nets because he won’t get vaccinated, spoke for the first time since the team decided to keep him off the court, saying his refusal was a matter of personal freedom.
Gov. Kathy Hochul says New York will appeal a judge’s ruling granting a preliminary injunction to health care workers claiming a religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine.
Hochul called the decision “disappointing,” and said it hinders the state’s ability to help people.
To further improve transparency with the people of New York, Hochul says the state is creating a new COVID-19 data hub, and referred to the current system as “too complicated.”
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced the launch of a new online tool to monitor spending of federal recovery aid and COVID-19 relief programs in the state.
MTA officials aren’t fully enforcing a mandate for employees to submit proof of a COVID-19 vaccine or a weekly negative test in order to work.
New York has settled a years-long legal fight over school funding, Hochul said. She informed former rivals and critics of her predecessor, who supported efforts to add billions of dollars in direct spending for schools deemed to be in “high-needs” districts.
A phone call with onetime gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who ran with likely 2022 primary opponent New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, is one of many meetings and phone calls that the governor has held in recent weeks.
Hochul also met with Assemblyman Ron Kim, and offered the first formal apology to nursing home advocates who have been seeking for the state to recognize the issues they and their loved ones have gone through during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I apologized for the pain that those poor families had to endure as a result of their family members contracting COVID in nursing homes, and it was a very emotional meeting,” Hochul said. “…People deserve to know that their government, listens and actually cares, and gives a damn about them.”
Hochul is ending a program begun under her predecessor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which had helped suppress negative information about Cuomo and his administration.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin launched a search for a lieutenant governor candidate ahead of the expected June GOP primary. It will be led by Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.
New York state is unlikely to replenish an excluded worker fund with another multi-billion dollar pot of money, Hochul said, though she didn’t rule out the possibility entirely.
Several organizations and groups are calling on Hochul to prevent cryptocurrency mining in New York.
As he hints at running for governor, lame duck mayor Bill de Blasio has racked up nearly $1 million in debts to lawyers, campaign consultants and taxpayers that records indicate he currently can’t pay.
Hochul and de Blasio announced that women and transgender people held at the Rikers Island jail complex will be transferred to two state prisons 40 miles north of the city – the latest effort to stem a crisis that has engulfed the correction system.
After touring Rikers, Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ritchie Torres and Carolyn Maloney said they were horrified by the conditions facing prisoners and staff alike.
Eric Adams, the likely next mayor of New York City, has kept a light public campaign schedule in recent weeks, allowing him to raise funds and plan a new administration.
Adams prepared Latino leaders for the Nov. 2 general election by invoking the name of Donald Trump during a speech in West Harlem last night.
Adams insists he doesn’t care about his margin of victory, as long as he wins.
Adams said he supports a Gifted and Talented program admissions exam — leading some critics to question the impact and timing of de Blasio’s 11th-hour overhaul.
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa opened the door to the possibility of shutting down one of the Big Apple’s most iconic attractions — the Bronx Zoo — over concerns for the animals that live there.
De Blasio refused to make public a ruling that he repay $320,000 in expenses racked up by his NYPD security detail during his failed 2020 presidential bid — his latest defense against a probe that found he misused the protective unit.
An obscure city panel may vote to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from its place in the City Council chambers amid controversy over the Founding Father’s history as a slaveholder.
The city’s Public Design Commission — comprised of mayoral appointees — has listed “the long term loan” of the 1833 painted plaster statue of the Declaration of Independence author to the New-York Historical Society on its “consent” agenda for Monday.
Margaret Garnett, the commissioner of the New York City agency that roots out corruption in local government, will leave her post and become the No. 2 official in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
A New York City police officer was in custody late yesterday after admitting to fatally shooting a woman whom she encountered in her girlfriend’s Brooklyn apartment and shooting the girlfriend as well, officials said.
The five boroughs saw rates for sexually transmitted diseases jump back to pre-pandemic levels by July 2020, just a month after the state’s initial lockdown orders were lifted and replaced by social distancing rules that forced most other activities outside.
The downfalls of Cuomo, Harvey Weinstein, and R. Kelly have heightened the “interest and intrigue” surrounding Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite’s lawyers wrote, arguing for an unusual amount of secrecy in the lead-up to her trial.
The state DOT lacks sufficient accountability and oversight with its more than 4,000 vehicles and their related maintenance expenses, which totaled $153 million from 2017 to 2019, according to an audit by the state comptroller’s office.
The Transportation Security Administration is sounding the alarm on the “huge problem” of a record high number of passengers bringing firearms to airports.
Ex-Rudy Giuliani pal Lev Parnas was no serial fraudster, but instead a weed entrepreneur who once personally pitched Trump on a proposal to legalize marijuana nationwide, his attorney argued on the first day of the politically connected businessman’s trial.
Trump will return to New York City next Monday for a court-ordered deposition at Trump Tower about his security team’s crackdown on Mexican protesters in 2015.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued a subpoena to Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official under Trump who was involved in Trump’s frenzied efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
A feud between rival biker gang associates apparently triggered a brazen shootout at an underground private lounge in Albany over the weekend that left a 29-year-old military veteran dead and six others wounded.
Long-running efforts to hold City of Albany police more accountable passed a major hurdle this spring when lawmakers adopted a package of reforms, including those that would give teeth to the city’s civilian police oversight board.
SUNY Schenectady County Community College has even more room to grow in the future now that it has an expanded real estate portfolio.
The underpass of the Collar City Bridge in Troy is getting a lot more colorful. The Arts Center of the Capital Region has collaborated with the city of Troy to organize the Uniting Line project.
If the organizers of Capital Holiday Lights in the Park can’t hire enough full-time workers, they said, this year’s event will be canceled.
A 12-year-old dog was rescued after being stuck for five days without food or water in a narrow rock crevice near the Gertrude’s Nose Trail in Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Ulster County.
Starbucks, the largest coffee house in the nation, has closed two of its Buffalo-area stores that are attempting to become the first locations in the country to unionize.
A man armed with a bow and arrows went on a rampage in a Norwegian town outside Oslo, killing five people and wounding two others in the deadliest attack in Norway in a decade, the authorities said.
A group of star gymnasts stepped up their attack on the U.S. Olympics & Paralympic Committee by asking Congress to dissolve the organization’s board over its alleged failings in handling the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal.
Jeff Bezos ’ Blue Origin flew the actor William Shatner and three others to the edge of space yesterday morning, the latest flight aimed at establishing the fledgling space-tourism market. At the age of 90, Shatner is the oldest person to reach space.
The oldest of Bill and Melinda Gates’ children, Jennifer, 25, will say “I do” this weekend in an extravagant wedding ceremony fit for the 1 percent on her sprawling horse farm in Westchester County.
Tensions are rising inside Netflix over a Dave Chappelle stand-up special that some employees said was offensive to the transgender community, the latest clash between the streaming giant’s radical-candor culture and its embrace of creative freedom.
