Good Monday morning; get ready to bid a fond farewell to January, which, FWIW, I am not terribly sorry to see the back end of – especially after the weekend we just had, weather-wise.
It wasn’t too bad in the Capital Region. The NYC and LI areas, I understand, got whacked with the white stuff. I unexpectedly made it out of the state for a work trip to Key West, FL, which normally would be amazing to get a little dose of sun and sand, but thanks to the storm, it’s downright freezing – in the 60s, which is very cold for here, the coldest it has been for 12 years, they tell me.
You can definitely tell who’s local – they’re the ones wearing gloves and ski jackets – while the tourists, like me, are the ones exposing their pasty sunless skin to the weak rays in shorts and tanks while running their weekend long run.
Normally, the Grammy Awards would be taking place today, but due to the ongoing pandemic, that has been rescheduled to April 3 and will be broadcast live from its new location, the MGM Grand Garden Arena in LA. Trevor Noah, the host of “The Daily Show” and the 2021 Grammys, will return as master of ceremonies.
The list of 2022 nominees was released last November, and musician Jon Batiste, also the bandleader on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” led among all nominees with 11. He celebrated by pointing out on Twitter that is birthday is 11/11.
While you’re on Grammy Awards countdown, if that’s the sort of thing you do, you might indulge in a nice up of something hot and sweet and chocolatey, because, you guessed it, it’s National Hot Chocolate Day.
This is not to be confused with National Hot Cocoa Day, which was Dec. 13. And, as it turns out, they are two different things. The internet is amazing, because really, I had no idea. All these years, I had been using those two terms interchangeably, when they are not, in fact, interchangeable at all.
Hot chocolate is made from a base of melted chocolate with some sort of warm liquid – water, milk, or cream, generally – added.
Hot cocoa, meanwhile, is made from a powdered base of cocoa, sugar, and added flavorings. It’s generally thinner than hot chocolate.
Now you know.
You probably also have some dim memory of learning back in grade school that the custom of drinking liquid chocolate started with the Mayans, which they made from ground-up cocoa seeds mixed with water, cornmeal, and chili peppers, pouring this concoction back and forth between two vessels until it was thick and frothy.
Drinking chocolate was introduced to Europe by the explorer Cortez in the 1500s, and though it was at the time cold and bitter, it was adopted by the upper classes in Spain, where it eventually evolved to being served hot, sweetened and minus the spicy kick.
In the 1700s, chocolate houses were popular in London, and Royal College of Physicians President Hans Sloane brought a recipe for mixing chocolate with milk home from Jamaica, which made the beverage still more palatable and enjoyable.
Folks used to believe that hot chocolate had medicinal properties and it was used as a treatment for stomach and liver ailments. This is my kind of diagnosis, FWIW.
Powdered hot chocolate, which is mass produced (and in my humble opinion, rather vile), was invented by a guy named Charles Sanna in the 1950s, whose family business produced powdered dairy creamer. The demand for their product had been high during the Korean War, but then petered out due to the loss of their military contract.
Sanna had a surplus of creamer, and started tinkering around with the idea that it would make a great base for a powdered chocolate drink. The rest, as they say, is history, and the result of his efforts was sold in grocery stores under the name Swiss Miss, which is, as you know, still around today.
It’s going to be in the high 20s and sunny in your neck of the woods today. Down here in the Keys, we might see 70 degrees. Fingers crossed.
In the headlines…
A new poll finds that a plurality of Americans view the Supreme Court as motivated by partisanship, while President Joe Biden’s vow to select a Black woman to fill a vacancy without reviewing all potential candidates evokes a sharply negative reaction from voters.
More than three-quarters (76%) of Americans want Biden to consider all potential nominees to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, according to the poll.
Meanwhile, Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, heaped praise on U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, who is speculated to be one of Biden’s leading contenders for the Supreme Court.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin defended Biden’s plan to pick a Black woman to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, saying that it was consistent with actions by past presidents who made demographic factors part of the selection criteria.
Today marks two years since the Taliban kidnapped U.S. Navy Veteran Mark Frerichs, who was working as a contractor in Afghanistan. Biden is joining the calls to release him.
Frerichs, a civil engineer and contractor from Lombard, Illinois, was kidnapped in January 2020 from the capital of Kabul. He is believed to be in the custody of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.
The US and Russia are headed for confrontation at the UN Security Council over the Ukraine crisis, with the Americans vowing to make the Russians justify their massing of troops on Ukraine’s borders, and Kremlin diplomats dismissing the meeting as theatrics.
Ex-President Donald Trump this weekend blasted Biden’s leadership of the country — touching on everything from immigration to the economy — before alleging that his successor couldn’t attend a sporting event in the United States without being jeered.
Trump conjured a vision of a second term that would function as a tool of personal vengeance, and become even more authoritarian than his first, when he vowed to pardon US Capitol insurrectionists if he runs for the White House again and wins.
Trump said he wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election, repeating the false claim that Pence had the power to do so and slamming recent bipartisan efforts to reform the Electoral Count Act.
The Republican chairman of the National Governors Association, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said Trump should not lead Republicans or the country again.
Democrats are increasingly willing to accept whatever child-care, healthcare and climate package that Sen. Joe Manchin would support as they return to Washington, hoping to salvage elements of the economic agenda after months of failed negotiations.
“Saturday Night Live” kicked off its show this week with its Biden reviewing Russia’s efforts to spread misinformation on social media in Ukraine.
The chief executive of Spotify, Daniel Eck, responded to growing complaints from musicians and listeners over the role of Joe Rogan, the service’s star podcaster, in spreading what has been widely criticized as misinformation about the coronavirus.
Author and researcher Brené Brown has paused releases of her Spotify-exclusive podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead “until further notice”, shortly after Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from the streaming platform.
Spotify said it is adding a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes discussion about Covid-19. The advisory will direct listeners to a Covid-19 hub that will include links to trusted sources, the company said.
“(I)t’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time,” Ek said in a statement.
Rogan, responding to Young’s objections to his podcast and host Spotify, said his show has grown “out of control” and pledged to be more balanced and informed about controversial topics and guests.
Young urged his Twitter followers to listen to his songs through a four-month free trial on Amazon Music after he boycotted Spotify over COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
The so-called “stealth” Omicron variant, which goes by the scientific name BA.2 and is one of three branches of the Omicron viral family, could drag out the current surge in much of the world.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics that open Friday will by many measures be the most complicated on record.
The Omicron variant spreads so quickly and generally causes such a mild form of illness among vaccinated people that countries are tolerating greater Covid-19 outbreaks, letting infections balloon to levels that would have been treated as public-health crises.
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 continue to slow in the U.S., according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Still, the U.S. is just days away from seeing 900,000 deaths due to COVID-19, and a million deaths are on the horizon, public health experts said this weekend.
Across the United States, some state and county pandemic policies have been contested in court, overthrown and reinstated again from one day to the next, often leaving residents with a sense of whiplash.
Gov. Kathy Hochul extended the state’s mask mandate through Feb. 10, nine additional days after it was initially set to expire.
“The trend is much more positive and that is why I want to talk about the fact that we’ll have a temporary extension of our business ‘mask or vaccine’ policy and that has been a critical tool in driving those numbers down,” Hochul said.
Unvaccinated NYPD officers currently on unpaid leave after a sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandate late last year will be fired next month if they don’t get the jab.
The forgiving grading system used by New York City teachers during the coronavirus pandemic is history. Educators are expected to hand out F’s to students who don’t pass instead of the pandemic-imposed rule that converted failing marks into incomplete.
New Yorkers with COVID are eligible for free home deliveries of antiviral treatments.
Cheslie Kryst, who was crowned Miss USA in 2019 and was an entertainment correspondent on “Extra”, jumped to her death from her luxury Midtown high-rise apartment building yesterday, police said.
Sources said Kryst left behind a note saying she wanted to leave everything to her mother, a former pageant competitor herself who was crowned Mrs. North Carolina in 2002. The note didn’t include a motive for Kryst’s actions.
Adolfo Carrion, a former Bronx borough president who went on to a career in real estate, was tapped by NYC Mayor Eric Adams as commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Jessica Katz, the executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council, became the administration’s chief housing officer, and Eric Enderlin will continue to lead the city’s Housing Development Corp.
As part of the post, Katz will oversee the city’s beleaguered public housing authority, NYCHA, as well as the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and other housing-focused agencies, the source said.
Adams hinted at opening more homeless shelters throughout the Big Apple, as he took aim at some “sacred cow” neighborhoods whose residents have waged war against the facilities.
As New York City reels from a series of shocking crimes, Adams says he may hire more NYPD officers.
Adams issued a stern warning to the NYPD officers who’ll join his new anti-gun team, saying they’ll be fired from the force if they engage in misconduct and targeted tactics.
Ginia Bellafante: “Adams is left selling aggressive policing policies in a post-George Floyd world to a host of constituents who do not necessarily recognize the urgency.”
The same day the widow of fallen NYPD Officer Jason Rivera called out the Manhattan District Attorney for his lenient approach to crime, Adams voiced outrage over news that a teen suspected of shooting another cop was released on bond Friday.
Adams, in his eulogy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said that Detective Rivera joined the department for the right reasons — to make change from within — and that his death was a reminder of what officers put on the line each day.
After centuries of being shut out of political perches in the nation’s largest city, Black politicians have been elected in an unprecedented wave, presenting them with a rare opportunity to deliver for communities of color.
The MTA is planning the largest expansion of mass transit in New York City since the first half of the 20th century, improving commutes for tens of thousands of residents.
New York State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs is siding with Adams over Hochul and legislative leaders by calling for a fix to the controversial bail reform law.
Hochul said she laid down the law to embattled Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, telling him that “safety and justice must go hand-in-hand” during a private meeting Friday afternoon.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, who is gaining little traction in his primary challenge to Hochul and also ran a long-shot gubernatorial primary against then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2006, said he won’t be daunted by the perceived long odds.
Five months after becoming governor Hochul was reflecting on how she approaches her new job – practically and symbolically.
New York Democrats proposed a starkly partisan redesign of the state’s congressional map that would be one of the nation’s most consequential, offering the party’s candidates an advantage in 22 of the state’s 26 House districts in this fall’s midterm election.
The proposed lines promise to be a major boon for the party for a decade to come, beginning with a hard-fought national battle with Republicans this year for control of the House of Representatives.
The changes for the House could be voted on as early as Wednesday.
The Democratic plan eliminates the seat currently held by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney, who lives in the Utica area. Much of her seat would join the swing district currently held by Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado.
State lawmakers are considering whether to permanently legalize to-go drinks, setting off a clash between liquor stores and restaurants.
The Farm Laborer Wage Board agreed Friday to set a path to a 40-hour work week for farm workers in New York, a landmark decision that was swiftly criticized by the agricultural industry and the Republican Party.
The state Conservative Party kicked off a two-day annual conference at a Latham hotel yesterday with a list of topics that are expected to be central in this year’s election, including bail statutes, redistricting of political boundaries and changes in voting rules.
The Legal Aid Society has filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision seeking a court order compelling the agency to release an expert’s report on the high rate of suicides in New York’s prisons.
The family of the man critically wounded by Albany police last week is continuing to raise questions about the shooting.
Something didn’t smell right when Rotterdam residents opened their annual sewer tax bills to find they were charged increases as high as 800 percent over the year before.
A 20-year-old SUNY Oneonta student who was a Columbia High School graduate is dead, the city’s Police Department said in a statement.
The Los Angeles Rams rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to secure a spot in the Super Bowl at their home stadium next month with a thrilling 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game last night.
The Bengals’ latest, craziest conquest vanquished the reigning A.F.C. champion Kansas City in a second-half comeback that the good folks of southwestern Ohio and neighboring areas will hail for eons.
Technically, Super Bowl LVI will feature the worst matchup in history.
Howard Hesseman, the actor and improvisational comedian best known for playing a stuck-in-the-’60s radio disc jockey in the TV sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 81.
