Good Friday morning. Kind of a weird workweek with a brief pause in it (for some of us), to commemorate the federal holiday of Veteran’s Day.
If you will be so kind as to indulge me…I am deviating from the norm today by noting that it is National Peanut Butter Month. There are other days happening today, but you can look those up on your own.
I need to give some significant love to my absolute, hands-down favorite food on the planet.
Yes. It’s true. Peanut butter – well, all nut butters, really – is my desert island food. I rely on PBJ when I’m running ultra distances, and I never get sick of it, somehow. I just love it that much.
Though peanut sauces are not unusual in terms of cuisine around the world, peanut spread is something of an oddity – a singular U.S. thing, though peanut paste was first patented in Canada in the 1800s. Also, the Inca reportedly were grinding peanuts long before anyone on this continent started doing it.
Nutritionist and cereal pioneer John Harvey Kellogg filed a patent for a peanut butter prototype in 1895. He was also a Seventh-Day Adventist and, as such, endorsed a plant-based diet and saw nut butters as an alternative to meat.
When I lived in France, I spent an embarrassing amount of money to purchase peanut butter of a questionable date and origin because I missed it that much. My French friends, who were all Nutella freaks, were downright disgusted by my snack of choice.
Then again, I don’t get the UK’s love of Marmite, (which apparently is banned in some countries?!) so there you go.
Anyway, back to nut butters. I own a significant number of varieties – probably 8 to 10 different jars, varying from as unique as pumpkin seed butter to straight up basic Skippy. I love them all. Do not ask me to pick a favorite.
Today happens to be the 26th anniversary of the opening of an exhibition at Washington, DC’s National Gallery of Art featuring 21 works of the Dutch master painter Johannes Vermeer. (The Google Doodle told me this). I was not aware that only 35 of his paintings survive today, though he’s probably best known for the “Girl With the Pearl Earring” as it is the focus of a 1999 historical novel that did very well…even I read it.
We’ve been spoiled by the weather of late, and that’s about to come to an end. Rain is in the forecast pretty much all day today, with temperatures in the low 60s. We’re heading into the 40s pretty soon, and I heard some mention of “snow in the higher elevations.” Boo hiss.
In the headlines…
President Biden paid homage yesterday to veterans, calling them the “solid steel spine” of the United States and the “soul of America” as he marked the first Veterans Day in two decades without troops engaged in an active war overseas.
Biden said his administration would keep the needs of veterans at the front of its pandemic-recovery efforts, as he honored veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.
Biden also pledged that his administration will expand presumptive conditions for toxic exposure and particulate matter, including Agent Orange and burn pits, and improve care at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities.
Inflation has driven new Republican criticism of Democrats’ $2 trillion social-spending and climate plan, which the White House calls Build Back Better. House Democrats are aiming to wrap up the bill next week and send it to the Senate.
The Biden administration has argued that its infrastructure and broader economic package will slow rapid price increases. But that will take time.
A Long Island man was arrested after allegedly making a death threat to Congressman Andrew Garbarino — one of 13 House Republicans who supported the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
By voting no on the infrastructure bill, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez set off a fierce debate, including among city residents eager to see the subways improved.
A group of House Democrats is introducing a resolution to censure Republican Arizona Rep. Paul A. Gosar for posting an altered, animated video that depicts him killing Ocasio-Cortez and swinging two swords at Biden.
Biden signed legislation to prevent companies like Huawei Technologies Co. that are deemed security threats from receiving new equipment licenses from U.S. regulators.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to hold a virtual summit on Monday, people familiar with the matter said, as the two leading world economies pledge to work together on climate change but differences remain over Taiwan and other fronts.
Jobless claims fell by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly ups and downs, dropped by nearly 7,300 to 278,000, also a pandemic low.
Robotics orders by North American companies are on track for their biggest year amid a significant labor shortage, according to an industry group.
A federal appeals court agreed to quickly consider former President Donald Trump’s request to deny a special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot access to records from his presidency, which will at least temporarily delay disclosure of the material.
The move by a three-judge panel will preserve the status quo for now while lawyers for Trump, Congress and the Biden administration submit briefs over the next two weeks and then hold arguments on Nov. 30.
Germany was once seen as a prime example of how to deal with the coronavirus. Now, it’s recording close to 50,000 new Covid cases a day, prompting a dire warning of a dramatic rise in fatalities from one expert.
Germany’s capital Berlin will ban unvaccinated people from restaurants, bars, cinemas and other entertainment venues from Monday, as the country grapples with its highest surge in Covid-19 cases to date.
Unvaccinated individuals are the main drivers of a fourth wave of Covid-19 cases in Germany that has produced tens of thousands of new daily infections — more than the country has had at any point in the pandemic.
Coronavirus cases are surging in several U.S. states with relatively high vaccination rates, prompting concern among health officials who had hoped inoculations would help curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moderna held a brief conference call to defend the safety of its Covid-19 shot from a barrage of questions about associated heart risks in young people.
Moderna said the protection its vaccine offers against severe disease, hospitalization and death outweighs the risk of myocarditis, a rare heart condition seen in a small number of young men who received the shot.
The Food and Drug Administration said more than 2 million at-home Covid-19 tests from Australia-based Ellume USA LLC have been recalled because of a number of false-positive results.
A pharmacy in Virginia incorrectly administered Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 shots to 112 children last week, according to the state Department of Health.
More school districts are loosening mask and quarantine requirements as Covid-19 vaccines roll out for younger children and cases have dropped from the summer’s Delta surge.
Public health experts say the decline over time of vaccine effectiveness does not mean that they are not working.
Staffing shortages in hospitals across Colorado, many of them overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, has triggered a statewide medical crisis.
Colorado will allow any resident over the age of 18 to get a Covid-19 booster shot, expanding eligibility guidelines for the third vaccine dose as hospitals in the state strain under an influx of sick patients.
Because of staff shortages, some school districts are canceling classes. Others are lowering their hiring standards. The result can be a chaotic classroom.
About 50,000 children ages 5 to 11 have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose during New York’s initial pediatric vaccination rollout, which began last week, about 3 percent of the 1.5 million of kids in that age group.
Some charter schools are being left out of a massive New York City effort to vaccinate children against the coronavirus — and the schools excluded from the effort are crying foul.
A recent study in the United Kingdom found that COVID affects one in seven children months after they were infected. Symptoms can include headaches, anxiety, lung issues and fatigue.
Kiss fans wanting to rock and roll all night with Gene Simmons had better come vaccinated. “If you’re willing to walk among us unvaccinated, you are an enemy,” the 72-year-old bassist said in a Rock and Roll Channel interview.
The women accusing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment described a degrading and noxious environment in which they were subjected to constant come-ons and crude behavior, according to newly released transcripts.
Cuomo would regularly lash out at his senior staff — and once told a top aide, “You’re lucky that I don’t throw you out the window,” according to one of his accusers. Though the aide, Rich Azzopardi, who still works for Cuomo, said that was “news to me.”
Cuomo appeared to suffer from sudden memory loss when grilled about the sexual misconduct claims levied at him — answering “I don’t recall,” “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know” more than 200 times during his deposition.
A former top state Health Department infectious disease expert testified that Cuomo’s office barred the agency from working closely with the New York City Health Department and other county public health officials during the peak of the pandemic.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams vowed to reinstate the NYPD’s controversial plainclothes cop units even though a prominent leader of the city’s Black Lives Matter movement told him “riots” and “bloodshed” will ensue in the streets if he follows through.
Hawk Newsome, the activist who threatened “bloodshed” after a sit-down with Adams earlier this week, is a rogue militant and failed politician who likes to wear a bullet-proof vest and chew on a fat cigar when he strolls through his Bronx neighborhood.
NYPD cops blasted Newsome over his warning that the city would face “riots” if Adams makes good on his pledge to revive undercover anti-gun efforts.
Adams was out on the town last night, enjoying a three-hour dinner at a splashy new Italian restaurant in midtown Manhattan.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other elected officials would be required to disclose debt repayment plans under a newly drafted City Council bill that Manhattan Councilman Ben Kallos is hoping to pass before the end of the year.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Veterans Day signed into law a 12-bill package intended to support current and former service members and their families.
In what was billed as her first speech to a Jewish audience as New York’s governor, Hochul vowed to fight hate crimes and criticized fellow Democrats over their positions on Israel.
The governor emphasized her administration’s commitment to combating antisemitism and deepening ties with Israel.
“I reject the individuals in my party who are making this an issue and questioning our commitment to Israel,” Hochul said in an address at a virtual meeting for the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
New York’s first upstate governor since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has spent the better part of the past two weeks putting her fingerprints upon the five boroughs.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is asking Hochul to commit to full funding for a program for New York’s veterans who are coping with PTSD from their time in service.
Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island, the favored gubernatorial candidate of state Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy, said Attorney General Letitia James has the most likely path to the Democratic Party’s nomination for the same office.
A lawsuit challenges New York’s system of disqualifying potential foster parents because of their criminal records.
Two controversial rezoning plans made it past significant hurdles this week in the City Council, paving the way for land-use changes to proceed in Brooklyn and the Upper East Side.
As New Yorkers struggle with higher gas and grocery prices amid record-high inflation rates, the cost of rent is also increasing — and isn’t expected to level off anytime soon, according to data and experts.
Under questioning from reporters, de Blasio was forced to defend going deeper into debt to renovate his Brooklyn homes while failing to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars he still owes a law firm that reps companies doing business with the city.
A top representative for New York’s builders and developers told a group of Brooklyn business leaders that the city and state should use money from the federal infrastructure bill to “tear down” the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
National Grid emailed upstate New York customers earlier this week warning them that average monthly home heating bills will be $46 higher than last winter — an increase of nearly 50 percent.
The City of Albany gave its first public indication as to how it will oversee and hand out grants to neighborhood groups and city departments looking to use some of the federal bailout money set aside for next year.
A Utah man allegedly went on the dark web to pay roughly $16,000 in cryptocurrency to solicit the murder for hire of two people in Hoosick Falls in an apparent attempt to end a heated child custody dispute, according to federal prosecutors.
Municipal officials hope a shortage of plow drivers doesn’t snowball into big winter problems.
Valley Falls, a Rensselaer County village, opted out of the newly passed recreational marijuana law in its entirety, appearing to be the first Capital Region municipality to do so.
A Republican leader in northern Westchester has resigned from his post after being caught on camera using a racist slur to refer to a Democratic town councilman who is Indian-American.
A 22-year-old college student died of injuries sustained Friday night during the Travis Scott concert in Houston, her family said, marking the ninth fatality stemming from the show.
Edward L. Sadowsky, a six-term member of the New York City Council who helped redeem that body’s reputation before a 1989 government overhaul granted it broader powers, died in Beachwood, Ohio. He was 92.
F.W. de Klerk, who as president of South Africa dismantled the apartheid system that he and his ancestors had helped put in place, died at his home near Cape Tow. He was 85.
A new version of a lawsuit originally filed in January alleges that Subway misled the public about its tuna sandwiches and claims that the tuna sampled has trace amounts of chicken, pork and cattle DNA.
