Well, we made it to Friday, amazingly enough. It was a lot less painful than I thought it would be, though the first few days after the holiday, as mentioned, were rough. The rest of the week, though, flew by.
And now, it’s really and truly winter, with snow and bitter cold temperatures in the forecast. Buckle up, folks, we ain’t out of the winter woods yet.
Things have been a little heavy around here of late, and so in the interest of lightening things up….let’s talk about one of my favorite topics: Carbs.
I think we’ve been over this territory before, but I’m really more of a savory person than a sweet person. This is not to say that I don’t like a good chocolate cookie now and again, but given a choice between, say, a piece of candy and a bagel, I would take the bagel every time.
Also, I am very partial to, but almost never indulge in, a well fried anything. And I say well fried because there is a lot of crap fried food out there. I mean oily, heavy, and quite frankly, not even worth the calories.
And then there’s tempura, which, when done right, is in an entirely different category all its own. It’s National Tempura Day, and if you are not familiar with this amazing delicacy, you need to get yourself to a Japanese restaurant without delay.
Tempura veggies and shrimp are simply divine.
Full stop.
What makes tempura different from other “traditional” fried fare is the batter, which in this case consists of flour, egg and cold water, not breadcrumbs. The water needs to be ice cold to be effective, because that prevents gluten strings from forming. Some chefs even substitute sparkling water because its bubbles add extra air to the batter.
Now, to be clear, this is not health food – even when veggies are involved – because fried is fried, and fried is not good for you. So, consume with caution and prudence. But a balanced diet is the key to a long and happy life.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
The vegetables typically used in tempura include onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, kabocha (Japanese pumpkin – SO GOOD), green peppers and carrots. There’s also a round fritter-type thing of mixed vegetables and seafood that’s called kaki-age.
If you want to go deep into the history of tempura, click here or here or here.
Short version: Though tempura has become synonymous with Japanese cuisine, frying was reportedly introduced to Japan around the commercial port city of Nagasaki in the 1600s by Portuguese missionaries. It was intended to be food for Lent, when many Christians are forbidden from eating meat.
The word “tempura” comes from the Latin ad tempora cuaresme, which translates into “in the time of Lent.”
And now I’m hungry. And, because I don’t live in a city where one can order anything one would like to consume at any time of the day or night, I’m going to have to wait to get my tempura fix. Bummer.
As mentioned, we are in for some light snow this morning with temperatures in the low 30s, followed by a brief reprieve tomorrow of cold but dry weather, and then more snow/rain yuck on Sunday.
A winter storm moving through the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeast is expected to bring significant snowfall to the downstate region early today, potentially creating treacherous driving conditions and snarling the morning commute.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the state, Buffalo got hit with lake-effect snow.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden marked the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection by forcefully calling out former President Donald Trump for attempting to undo American democracy, saying such an insurrection must never happen again.
Standing in the very space where would-be insurrectionists had marched to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power, Biden denounced his predecessor in a way he’s never done before – indeed, in a way few US presidents have ever deemed necessary.
In his remarks, Biden did not mention Trump by name. But he repeatedly referenced the former president who fabricated a factless narrative of a stolen election and attempted to overturn the result.
Biden dismissed the idea that the insurrectionists were “patriots”, declaring that “you cannot love your country only when you win. You cannot obey the law only when it is convenient. You cannot be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.
The extraordinary moment, in which a sitting president accused his predecessor of holding “a dagger at the throat of America, at American democracy,” marked a sharp pivot in Biden’s strategy for dealing with Trump.
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that more than a dozen of her former Trump administration colleagues plan to meet next week to try and stop the ex-president as he continues to “manipulate people and divide our country.”
Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, revealed to be the author of “Anonymous”; former national security official Olivia Troye; and Trump’s one-time, short-lived communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, are also involved.
Trump hit out at Fox News Sean Hannity for suggesting days after the Capitol riot that the former president should stop claiming the election was rigged.
In the year since the Jan. 6 attack, a handful of Democrats, constitutional scholars and pro-democracy advocates have been quietly exploring how a post-Civil War amendment to the Constitution might be used to disqualify Trump from holding office again.
Democrats, warning of the undiminished dangers posed by Trump and his followers, marked the anniversary with a day of events, including speeches, personal testimony, a panel of historians, videos, moments of silence and a candlelight vigil.
Republicans by and large stayed away and refused to participate.
Sen. Mitch McConnell marked the anniversary of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by refusing to blame Trump and his right-wing supporters for carrying out the violent attack.
Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters during last year’s Capitol riot when a pipe bomb planted by a still-at-large suspect was discovered outside the building, it was revealed.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recounted being evacuated from the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 attack, including a close brush with rioters who he was told made antisemitic remarks about him.
On the anniversary of last year’s Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, New York City Mayor Eric Adams made clear that he wants those who took part in the attack to be brought to justice.
Trump’s new media venture plans to launch its social media app Truth Social on 21 February, according to an Apple Inc App Store listing.
A rare confirmation battle is brewing around the nomination of Andrew Wheeler, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump, to take a similar role in an incoming Republican state administration in Virginia.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose a bit more than expected as the omicron variant spread rapidly through the U.S., the Labor Department reported.
Jobless claims totaled 207,000 for the week ended Jan. 1, higher than the 195,000 forecast and up 7,000 from the previous period.
The highly transmissible omicron variant so far does not appear to have triggered significant layoffs. Altogether, nearly 1.8 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment aid the week that ended Dec. 25.
The labor market remains historically tight, with the number of unemployment-benefits filings holding last week around the lowest levels in five decades as firms struggled to remain fully staffed amid a resurgent pandemic.
Six health experts who advised Biden during his transition published opinion articles in The Journal of the American Medical Association, calling for a new domestic pandemic strategy geared to the “new normal” of living with the virus, not wiping it out.
Like any White House, Biden’s prizes loyalty and prefers to keep its differences in house; in that regard, the articles are an unusual step. The authors say they wrote them partly because they have not made headway talking directly to White House officials.
A new study found that women’s menstrual cycles did indeed change following vaccination against the coronavirus. The authors reported inoculated women had slightly longer menstrual cycles after receiving the vaccine than those who were not vaccinated.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the efficacy of boosters against Covid-19 will likely decline over time, and people may need a fourth shot in the fall to increase their protection.
Bancel, speaking at a Goldman Sachs-organized healthcare conference, said Moderna is working on a booster shot focused on the omicron variant of COVID-19, however it’s unlikely that it will be available in the next two months.
Some families say they are spending hundreds of dollars on Covid-19 testing during the surge in cases across the country, as efforts by the Biden administration and local officials to distribute free tests lag behind the Omicron variant’s rapid spread.
The CDC updated its Covid-19 quarantine and isolation guidance for K-12 schools, bringing it in line with less stringent recommendations for the general public announced last week.
Amid a winter surge of coronavirus cases that sparked a nationwide scramble for tests last month, as many as 1 million unused Covid-19 rapid test kits expired in a Florida warehouse, a top state official said.
Rapid antigen tests are quick, cheap and easy. But a new study suggests they can also be wrong, particularly about omicron.
In the new study, antigen tests — such as Quidel’s QuickVue and Abbott’s BinaxNOW, which can be easily used at home – missed detection of COVID-19’s omicron variant during the first early days of infection.
Federal officials are calling for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to contribute all of his remaining funds, including a $1,400 coronavirus relief payment, to the $101 million he owes victims and families.
Tsarnaev had paid $2,202 of the $101.1 million he owes in criminal restitution and other court fees as of Wednesday’s filing. He had $3,885 in his trust account in late December, according to those documents.
James Corden joined the ranks of late-night TV hosts who have recently tested positive for the coronavirus, disclosing his diagnosis yesterday as tapings of his CBS program, “The Late Late Show,” were halted for the next several days.
A day after John Mayer pulled out of Dead & Company’s music festival because he caught COVID-19, the entire event has been scrapped.
A popular podcasting conspiracy theorist who opposed vaccines reportedly died of COVID after attending a so-called superspreader conference attended by Alex Jones, Eric Trump and Michael Flynn.
Every vaccinated participant who endured serious COVID-19 outcomes as part of a new study of more than 1 million people had at least one risk factor that left them vulnerable, according to the CDC.
In New York, 130 people died due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, 62 of whom were from New York City, according to the latest data released by the state. The total is the largest number since mass vaccinations began.
The current numbers are still far below those from the spring of 2020 and many of the people in the hospital with COVID-19 sought treatment for something else and tested positive during intake.
As the highly contagious omicron variant continues to sicken tens of thousands of residents, COVID-19 tests, especially of the rapid or at-home variety, can be difficult to come by.
The state Health Department refused to release initial statistics ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul, intended to differentiate hospitalized COVID-19 sufferers from patients who tested positive during treatment for other ailments, saying officials needed to first “ensure consistency and data integrity.”
Faced with high absentee rates among students and teachers, principals at public schools across New York City are scrambling to staff classes and keep their doors open.
A coalition of city and state lawmakers signed a letter demanding a temporary switch to remote learning so parents and kids have time to get tested.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman openly defied state COVID mandates by allowing schools to decide whether students need to wear masks in classrooms.
Arguing that Albany was imposing an “autocracy” upon the state, Blakeman repeatedly ripped Hochul’s mask decrees prior to the signing.
With coronavirus cases surging in New York, about 21 percent of subway operators and conductors were absent this week, causing suspensions on three lines and changed schedules on others.
New York City will require police officers to conduct more frequent and regular sweeps of the subway system and work with homeless outreach teams to reassure current riders and lure back more commuters to a transit system that needs them.
Despite echoes of the Cuomo-era playbook, which saw police as the solution for tackling the issue of the homeless in the subway system, Hochul and Adams said their approach will be different.
Adams proposed easing workers back into businesses with a three-day workweek and then expanding to five days in New York City.
Adams had tough words for Queens cops on his first day on the job, warning the bad apples that he’ll bounce them from the NYPD if they’re “abusive to my community.”
Two top NYPD executives — who had been quietly pulling in a hefty pension and a nearly quarter-million-dollar salary under the dubious title of deputy commissioner — have been shown the door.
Adams has appointed three Jews — including two members of the Orthodox community — to senior positions in his administration.
Hochul’s State of the State speech offered a road map to how she is approaching the dynamics of both the June Democratic primary and November general election.
The Democratic governors of states that border New York endorsed Hochul’s bid for a full term as she faces a potential primary challenge later this year.
During Hochul’s first 45 days in office, on at least three separate days, the governor’s use of state aircraft has raised questions about whether there has been any misuse of taxpayer resources, according to a Times Union review of public records.
Recent decisions by prosecutors to not pursue criminal charges against ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo may fuel his interest in re-entering public life.
Cuomo is scheduled to be arraigned on a misdemeanor forcible touching charge today during a virtual proceeding in Albany City Court, where a judge is expected to rule on a request by prosecutors and Cuomo’s defense attorney to dismiss the case.
Judge Holly Trexler informed the prosecution and defense that they, as well as Cuomo, will be required to appear in court virtually this week.
The planned extension of the Second Ave. Subway into East Harlem has rumbled closer to reality, entering what the government calls its engineering process, officials said.
Six days into his tenure as Brooklyn Borough President, before his new website has launched or any policy decisions have been made, Antonio Reynoso has one thing to say: keep your cars off my plaza.
Schools across the Capital Region are seeing unprecedented COVID-19 levels following the holiday break, attributed in part, to the highly contagious but potentially less-lethal omicron variant. More are shifting to remote learning as a result.
Hochul’s plan to merge SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering back into the University at Albany where it originated has been a topic of discussion for years now, with UAlbany being one of the top advocates for the move.
Football fans who want to place a mobile bet on Sunday’s Jets-Bills game or Giants-Washington contest will be able to do so, now that the state Gaming Commission has approved four platforms to begin taking wagers at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan laid out the process for community groups and others to apply for a piece of the $25 million the city set aside from its American Rescue Plan funding for community investments and projects.
Once the state’s eviction moratorium expires later this month, local sheriffs will be tasked with executing eviction cases that have been stalled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic almost two years ago.
Two state Supreme Court justices from the Capital Region are headed to the state’s second-highest court.
The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors is starting the new year without committee assignments, but has renamed Moreau Supervisor Todd Kusnierz its 2022 chair for the second consecutive year.
Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick has abruptly resigned to become executive director for People for the American Way and will begin in February. The Feb. 2 Common Council meeting will be his last, and Alderperson Laura Lewis will take over as acting mayor.
Employees of a Starbucks store in Buffalo who voted to unionize last month walked off the job Wednesday, saying they lacked the staff and resources to work safely amid surging COVID-19 cases.
U.S. cities are facing a sustained surge in homicides, as police departments and mayors’ offices tally up crime statistics for 2021 and launch 2022 programs designed to curb gun violence.
Nicholas Kristof, a former New York Times columnist seeking to become the next governor of Oregon, does not qualify to run for the office this year because he failed to meet the state’s three-year residency requirement, state officials announced.
Tinsley, a Shiloh Shepherd who is being hailed as a “real-life Lassie” in Vermont.
This year’s Golden Globe ceremony will not be livestreamed when the awards are presented Sunday, meaning no one outside of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association can view the ceremony.
Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing finally found a winner — two, in fact — for its $632.6 million jackpot after three months of rollovers.
