Good morning, it’s Monday, and there are 18 days until Christmas, for those of you out there who are keeping track.
Today is St. Nicholas Day, the feast day of the patron saint of Russia and Greece, as well as sailors and children, who was particularly known for his generosity.
He was an actual person, BTW, Nicholas of Myra, who lived in the third and fourth century AD. He was reportedly very wealthy and known for giving away his own riches, dedicating himself to helping those who were less fortunate then he, and sometimes leaving coins in their shoes. (You can see where this is going).
In Holland, St. Nicholas is known as “Sinterklaas” – which sometimes appears as two words, Sinter Klass – and legend has it that he arrives on horseback (or maybe donkey-back) on his feast day, dressed in a red bishop’s road and a mitre, and accompanied by a guy known as “Black Peter”, who helps him give out sweets and gifts to good kids or lumps of coal, potatoes and switches to those who have misbehaved.
The Dutch brought their Sinterklass tradition with them to the New World, where they settled in – you know it! – New York City (except they called it New Amsterdam at the time). Somewhere along the road, Sinterklass became “Santa Claus” and here we are..
That’s a VERY abbreviated version of the story, of course.
St. Nicholas Day is still celebrated in parts of Northern Europe, where kids leave out carrots for Sinterklass’ horse and letters for the man himself. He, in turn, leaves them treats under their pillows or on the plates where their treats for him and his ride were placed, or sometimes in their stockings.
Oranges and chocolate coins are fairly common, which I hope do not get left under pillows, because that would make for a very bumpy sleep situation.
There are a bunch of other Santa-related historic traditions around the world, which all seem to have merged more or less into one. One particularly interesting legend of note: The candy cane was inspired by St. Nicholas’ hooked staff.
Another tradition worth trying: Baking some spicy ginger Sinterklass cookies, also known as Speculaas, which are often made in a mold in the shape of the saint himself.
The Google Doodle today marks the anniversary in 2007 when the culinary art of Neapolitan “Pizzaiuolo” was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and it is doing so with a dangerously addictive and deceptively simply pizza game. Try it. You’ll see.
Today is going to be crazy warm – 55 degrees! – but it’s also going to rain. And looking ahead, there are snow showers in the forecast on Wednesday. Mother Nature! Make up your mind, lady!
In the headlines…
Bob Dole, the plain-spoken son of the prairie who overcame Dust Bowl deprivation and grievous battle wounds to become the Senate majority leader and the last of the World War II generation to win his party’s nomination for president, died at the age of 98.
In a statement, the family said Dole died in his sleep early yesterday morning, having “served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years.” Dole announced in February that he had been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.
President Biden called Dole “an American statesman like few in our history, a war hero and among the greatest of the Greatest Generation…a friend whom I could look to for trusted guidance, or a humorous line at just the right moment.”
The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that no US government officials will attend the 2022 Beijing Olympics, implementing a diplomatic boycott of the games, according to several sources.
Biden celebrated artists including Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell and Lorne Michaels yesterday at the Kennedy Center Honors, bringing back presidential participation to an annual event skipped by Republican Donald Trump.
The ceremony also marked a return to a large-scale, lavish gala of tradition, as Covid-19 forced last year’s ceremony to be postponed and later scaled back.
Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak in a video call tomorrow the White House and Kremlin said, as tensions between the United States and Russia escalate over a Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border that’s seen as a sign of a potential invasion.
Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for Biden.
As the world grapples with the new Omicron coronavirus variant, China is determined as ever to eliminate Covid-19 within its borders – but it hasn’t been able to achieve that ambitious goal for the past seven weeks.
At least 15 states have detected the omicron coronavirus variant and that number is expected to rise, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.
The United States was poised to soon surpass more than 200 million people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Underscoring increasing concerns about Omicron, scientists in South Africa said on Friday that the newest coronavirus variant appeared to spread more than twice as quickly as Delta, which had been considered the most contagious version of the virus.
People who received Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines may get as much benefit from a Johnson & Johnson booster shot as a Pfizer one. That’s the finding of a small study released yesterday.
The emergence of the Covid-19 Omicron variant has pummeled small-cap stocks.
Vaccinations and booster shots continue to be the best defense against the coronavirus for the U.S., even with the spread of the new omicron variant, which now has been reported in at least 15 states, health officials said.
The Biden administration is preparing to fast-track authorization of revamped Covid-19 vaccines to combat Omicron as a study from South Africa suggests the fast-spreading variant might cause less severe illness than its predecessors.
The U.S. is looking to lift the ban on most travel from South Africa and neighboring countries “within a quite reasonable amount of time,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
Ten cases of Covid-19 were identified on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship that disembarked in New Orleans yesterday, the city said.All crew members and passengers are fully vaccinated and all 10 cases are asymptomatic, the cruise line said in a statement.
Researchers are racing to determine how widespread the Omicron variant might be across the U.S., scouring Covid-19 test samples and in some cases even examining wastewater.
Rio de Janeiro is the latest Brazilian capital to cancel New Year’s Eve celebrations, the city’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, announced Saturday on Twitter.
Parents in Northern California sent their two kids to school while well aware that one of the children had COVID-19, and never returned calls from public health contact tracers.
A health care analyst came to Manhattan for an anime convention. His trip shows how the COVID-19 virus once again outpaced the public health response.
The federal government should fund free at-home COVID-19 testing kits for New Yorkers to help stem the ongoing rise in infections and the emergence of the new Omicron variant, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday announced three more cases of the omicron variant for a total of eight confirmed cases in New York State.
We have the tools to help prevent the spread of this deadly virus: Get your vaccine, get your booster, and wear your mask. Let’s use these tools to protect ourselves and our loved ones as we approach the holidays,” Hochul said.
Health care officials say a “perfect storm” of new Covid cases, staff shortages and filled nursing homes has created a crisis upstate.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says he might require people to get COVID-19 booster shots if they want to attend concerts, restaurants and similar indoor venues, as the new Omicron variant continues to spread citywide.
New Jersey officials announced the state’s first confirmed case of the COVID-19 variant Omicron on Friday in a woman who had recently traveled to South Africa.
Connecticut on Saturday night reported its first case of the omicron variant, which is believed to be more contagious than previous strains. The individual may have been infected by a family member who attended the Anime NYC convention in New York
CNN said Saturday that anchor Chris Cuomo has been “terminated” by the network, “effective immediately.”
The announcement came after an outside law firm was retained to review information about exactly how Cuomo aided his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when the then-governor was accused of sexual harassment.
A former co-worker of Chris Cuomo made a sexual misconduct allegation against him that, according to the accuser’s attorney, is unrelated to “the Gov. Andrew Cuomo matter.”
Attorney Debra Katz told the AP that she had a client who was the victim of “serious sexual misconduct” by Cuomo and that she had contacted CNN about the woman’s allegations on Wednesday, after the network suspended its star correspondent.
The unidentified woman is set to be interviewed by outside lawyers hired by CNN this week, pending an agreement to keep her identity and everything she says confidential, sources said.
“This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother,” Chris Cuomo said in a statement. “So let me now say as disappointing as this is, I could not be more proud of the team at ‘Cuomo Prime Time’ and the work we did as CNN’s #1 show in the most competitive time slot.”
CNN President Jeff Zucker, who had stood by Chris Cuomo, was taken by surprise by the attorney general’s report, and felt the anchor misled him. On Saturday he completed a U-turn, reportedly firing Cuomo on a call.
CNN’s media correspondent Brian Stelter discussed the matter with anchor Jim Acosta on the network on Saturday, saying his former colleague had violated journalistic ethics and norms “not once or twice, but many times.”
SUNY Chancellor James Malatras, facing criticism over text messages revealed in the state attorney general’s sexual harassment allegation probe of ex-Gov. Cuomo, has the backing of SUNY trustees, but also faces criticism from two campus-related groups.
A growing bipartisan chorus of state pols is demanding that Cuomo’s handpicked SUNY chancellor, Malatras, either resign or get the boot over newly surfaced texts that show him trashing one of the disgraced ex-gov’s sex-harass accusers.
North Country Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik called on Hochul to “clean house from the criminal cesspool and the corrupt cronies that supported Gov. Cuomo.”
Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino, one of 13 House GOP members who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, wants Hochul
Mayor-elect Eric Adams released the names of hundreds of people who will assist in his transition to City Hall on Jan. 1, and signaled he’ll rely on help from past members of Mayor de Blasio’s administration to help make it a smooth one.
It’s a massive list of more than 700 people working on 20 different committees, including Education, Economic & Workforce Development and Public Safety & Justice.
A spokesperson for Adams released the names Friday, with 20 committees ranging from health, public safety, food policy, education, and infrastructure. The hope behind the team is to ensure Adams is prepared to work when he’s sworn in next month.
Adams made an emotional visit last week to Elmina Castle, the first European slave-trading post in sub-Saharan Africa — located on the west coast of present-day Ghana.
Frank Carone, a Brooklyn power broker in the running for a job in Adams’ new administration, had his law firm make a $50,000 no-interest loan to save a summer concert series closely tied to the mayor-elect.
A Brooklyn community is denouncing gun violence and calling on the next mayoral administration to take action.
Showing he intends to remain a player in the Republican Party, the Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa has launched a new Super PAC aimed at defeating US Senate Democratic Majority Leader Schumer, who is up for re-election next year.
The Manhattan stabbing spree survivor who begged for help as his deranged attacker celebrated nearby was recovering Saturday from the bloody trifecta of random assaults that killed a fellow Columbia University graduate student.
Supply chain problems that have hit businesses across the country now threaten a quintessential New York treat: Cream cheese.
Temperatures are falling and homeless New Yorkers are turning again to the subways in search of a warm and safe place to sleep.
NYPD and Columbia University have added additional patrols around campus after a Manhattan man was arrested in the fatal stabbing of a graduate student near Morningside Park Thursday, a few blocks from the school.
The Democratic Socialists of America decided not to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a dues-paying member of the group, for actions he took that conflict with the DSA’s support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Former RPI students say the school’s mental health policies are harmful.
The Open Space Institute has purchased a 60-acre property in Warren County that connects protected land between Moreau Lake State Park and the Adirondack Park.
Lansingburgh school district voters will go to the polls tomorrow to decide on a project to upgrade Rensselaer Park Elementary School.
Cryptocurrency miners are flocking to upstate New York’s faded industrial towns, prompting concern over the environmental impact of huge computer farms.
A court in Myanmar sentenced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s ousted civilian leader, to four years on charges of inciting public unrest and breaching Covid-19 protocols. She faces a series of rulings that could keep her locked up for the rest of her life.
James and Jennifer Crumbley listened by videoconference from separate jail cells as they were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shootings of four Oxford High School students, allegedly gunned down by their son, Ethan, 15.
Dina Lohan, actor Lindsay Lohan’s mother, was sentenced Friday to 18 days in jail and five years’ probation after pleading guilty to felony DWI in connection with a 2020 crash where she rear-ended a car near a Long Island mall, officials said.
A Twitter user recently raised the alarm by posting a screenshot of a tracker app showing about 100 sharks gathering in the Atlantic Ocean near the East Coast of the US.
