Good Tuesday morning. IN LIKE A LION! Hello, March!
Here’s a day I know all of my fellow caffeine lovers can get behind. It’s National Barista Day.
The word “barista” emerged in 1938, according to the interwebs. Reportedly, before then the word “barman” was used, but that changed as a result of Mussolini who was reportedly driving a campaign to “Italianise” words. (I’ve seen various references to this, but am not at all certain if this is true, so take it with a grain of salt – or, perhaps more appropriately, espresso).
The barista used to be a person – and I guess in Italy, still may be – who manned the bar, made alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and delivered small bar snacks. But here in the U.S., the word is now used to refer to someone who makes speciality coffee drinks.
An online job description described the position thusly:
A Barista is a professional who makes and serves beverages such as coffee, tea and specialty beverages. They are responsible for taking customer orders and payments. They also clean and sanitize their work areas, seating areas and equipment/tools.
Barista also happens to be the name of an Indian coffee company that claims to have “pioneered coffee culture in Indian” (previously better known as a tea drinking, or perhaps chai drinking locale), that also has locations in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and is the oldest coffee house chain in India, as well as its second-largest coffee chain with over 275 outlets as of July 2021.
Those who take their coffee very seriously consider a good barista an artist whose paint is espresso. One website likened the position to a “coffee sommelier,” but then went on to add: “
Yet it has much more in common with the pastry chef: precision of temperature and dosage, respect for time, rigor and the ability to reproduce the same drink with regularity. Like the pastry chef, he prepares or assembles his drink on demand, and most often in front of the customer.”
There is also something that is more or less the Olympics of baristas, known as the Barista World Championships, which “focuses on promoting excellence in coffee, advancing the barista profession, and engaging a worldwide audience with an annual championship event that serves as the culmination of local and regional events around the globe.”
Each year, more than 50 competitors must each prepare 4 espressos, 4 milk drinks, and 4 original signature drinks to exacting standards in a 15-minute performance set to music. They are judged on the taste of the beverages they create and serve, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill, and overall presentation.
My personal signature drink is very dark coffee – like a quad espresso – with extra hot steamed almond milk and some faux sweetener. It’s kind of a light Cortado (Spanish for “cut”), which traditionally features equal parts espresso and milk. While in Florida recently for work, I think I mentioned that I had my first Cuban coffee. It was a Cortado, and it was one of the best I’ve ever had.
It also kept me awake and buzzing for a solid 15 hours, which wasn’t exactly optimal.
Today, sadly, will be not fantastic on the weather front, with snow showers that change over to rain showers later in the day. Temperatures will be in the low 40s, which is something.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address tonight, and Washington is on high alert.
A security fence, National Guard troops and more police surround the Capitol in preparation for the State of the Union address and a possible truck convoy of protesters.
Biden’s healing agenda has been imperiled by conflicts both domestic and foreign. He will have to balance frank acknowledgement of domestic concerns — inflation foremost among them — with the burgeoning crisis in Ukraine.
During his speech, Biden will focus on a new plan to lower costs for American families and his administration’s efforts in the labor market’s recovery, senior administration officials told reporters on a call previewing the remarks.
All major networks and cable news channels will broadcast the speech live. The White House will stream it live on its website, as will news networks through Facebook.
Biden offered a curt response when asked whether Americans should be worried about the possibility of nuclear war breaking out with Russia: “No.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, will skip the State of the Union address because of the COVID-19 testing requirement for attendees. He said he doesn’t have time to get tested.
First lady Jill Biden mistakenly introduced Vice President Kamala Harris as the president of the United States during a Black History Month celebration at the White House, then claimed she was joking after correcting herself.
Talks between Russia and Ukraine on a potential cease-fire ended with no deal as Moscow intensified its assault, killing at least 10 civilians in a shelling attack on neighborhoods in the eastern city of Kharkiv and pursuing efforts to seize the capital, Kyiv.
More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the head of the region wrote on Telegram.
As President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused Russia of “military crimes” for deliberately targeting civilians in its unrelenting bombardment of his country, a huge convoy of Russian tanks and mechanized vehicles massed menacingly just north of Kyiv.
Ukrainian ambassador Oksana Markarova told a bipartisan group of senators that her country needs more help from the U.S. and could run out of military supplies to fend off a Russian invasion, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting in the Capitol.
Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider is praising Ukrainians who have turned one of his band’s hit songs, “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” into a rallying cry.
British energy giant Shell became the latest big Western company to sever ties with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying it would pull back from joint projects in the country and quit its role financing the now-halted Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
YouTube said that it will temporarily halt the ability of a number of Russian channels, including state-sponsored RT, to monetize their content on the platform, which followed a similar ban previously announced by Meta.
Netflix said it has no plans to add any Russian channels to its service in Russia despite a regulation that would require the streaming giant to carry several state-run broadcasters.
As antiwar protests continued across Russia, the police detained at least 411 people in 13 cities, an activist group said. The group, OVD-Info, said there had been at least 6,435 detentions in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The mass exodus of refugees from Ukraine to the eastern edge of the European Union showed no signs of stopping yesterday, with the U.N. estimating more than 520,000 people have already escaped Russia’s burgeoning war against Ukraine.
The U.S. and European Union blocked Russia’s central bank from using its emergency reserves to protect the economy from the Western pressure campaign, a salvo the bank’s governor said risked triggering a financial crisis.
As a result of sanctions, the ruble plunged, the stock market was shuttered and foreign investors shed holdings in Russian companies, deepening the concern among citizens who had become accustomed to the perks of globalization.
Websites for the Russian Foreign Ministry as well as the country’s largest stock exchange and a key state-owned bank were offline yesterday, as loosely organized groups of volunteer hackers pledged to retaliate against the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine.
Former President Trump says Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he had overturned Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
New York Republicans gathered on Long Island for the first day of the party’s annual convention and attacked Biden’s Democratic administration over its response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority questioned the scope of the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, suggesting that the justices could deal a sharp blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to address climate change.
The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt, creating a harrowing future in which the planet is irreversibly damaged, a major new scientific report has concluded.
Estée Lauder has fired John Demsey, a senior executive who last week posted a meme on his personal Instagram account that contained a racial slur and a joke about Covid-19.
The number of new COVID-19 cases is in steep decline in many parts of the U.S., but it’s still unknown how many of the people who’ve had the illness will develop the lingering symptoms of long COVID-19.
After COVID-19 initially battered mom-and-pop businesses in 2020, openings of new businesses rebounded in the second year of the pandemic to near pre-virus levels — just not in big cities like New York and Los Angeles.
The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to a large new set of data collected by health officials in New York State.
California, Oregon and Washington will stop requiring masks in schools after March 11, the governors of the three states said yesterday in a joint statement.
Mayor Eric Adams plans to end certain mask and vaccine mandates in hopes of restoring a sense of normalcy in New York City. Some health experts think he should wait.
New York state is dropping its school masking mandate tomorrow, but Adams said he will decide next week if students and staff inside city schools can unmask after he takes a look at the numbers this week.
Adams, a diehard Nets fan, said he’d do almost anything to see Kyrie Irving play at home – except send the wrong message by making an exception for the unvaccinated All-Star.
You may not need proof of vaccination to eat inside a New York City restaurant, but Adams said you’ll still need it to work.
New York City students and educators reacted with a mix of anxiety and relief to news that Adams is likely to scrap a school mask mandate in less than a week.
Just over half of New York City public school students are fully vaccinated, according to education department data. In total, 59% of the city’s public school students have received at least one vaccine dose and nearly 52% are considered fully vaccinated.
Hochul’s abrupt decision to drop her initial strategy – coming on the eve of the state GOP convention – emerged amid relentless pressure from her critics and the portion of parents left angered that their young children were being required to mask up.
Hochul said she needs more information to make a decision on lifting the state’s remaining mask mandates — which are still in place on public transportation and in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons.
In what’s sure to be viewed as throwing down the gauntlet to socialists and progressives in the city, Adams declared that he’s a “compassionate capitalist” minutes after ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.
A week into Adams’ subway enforcement campaign, City Hall has yet to reveal anything about its results other than to say that 100 individuals were “contacted” by so-called Safe Option Support (SOS) outreach teams of cops and social workers on the first day.
Businesses in New York City are grappling with a rise in crimes that has cascaded from the disruptions of the last two years.
New York officials found misspending by the African American Planning Commission, which runs homeless shelters, but public money continued to flow even after the nonprofit was cited for nepotism.
New York Republican Party chief Nick Langworthy trashed Hochul as no different than her disgraced predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, with one exception — she wears “a skirt and heels.”
“We need to start acting like the Ukrainians…we need to fight in this election like our freedom, our lives, and our futures depend on it because they do,” Langworthy said. “One party Democratic rule has been an utter disaster for America, and it has been no better here for New York State.”
Former New York Gov. George Pataki won’t run for his old job, he told reporters at the state Republican convention on Long Island.
The state GOP designated Paul Rodriguez for state comptroller, backing his bid to challenge longtime incumbent Democrat Tom DiNapoli this year.
Joe Pinion, a former anchor with the cable channel Newsmax, knows his long-shot bid for the U.S. Senate by challenging Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would be history making as the first Black man to represent New York in the chamber.
The Conservative Party of New York over the weekend formally designated its slate of statewide candidates for office this year, officially backing Rep. Lee Zeldin’s bid for governor.
Cuomo’s still-active campaign account began spending $369,000 to air a TV ad across the state — a media blitz designed to brazenly recast himself as the victim of politically motivated “attacks.”
Hochul’s bid for a full term was endorsed by the New York State Laborers Union, her campaign announced.
Ana María Archila, co-founder of Make the Road NY and the Center for Popular Democracy, was designated the Working Families Party’s preferred candidate for lieutenant governor as the progressive ballot line sets its statewide ticket.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s bid to keep her seat in Congress is getting the backing of one of New York’s most venerable civil rights activists, state NAACP President Hazel Dukes.
Hochul announced the first State Park in Kingston, planned for more than 500 acres of what once was industrial property, with cement plants and brickyards. It will be named for 19th century African American abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth.
Hochul wants to set aside $200 million in the upcoming state budget to pay for infrastructure upgrades at upstate business parks to attract computer chip makers and other high-tech manufacturers.
The TU found a dozen instances where LG Brian Benjamin submitted vouchers claiming the full, taxpayer-funded reimbursement for traveling from New York City to Albany; during those same trips, a campaign-issued debit card was used to pay for gasoline.
A speeding driver and his two passengers died early yesterday after he veered off Manhattan’s Henry Hudson Parkway and their BMW plummeted onto the Amtrak tracks below, bursting into flames, cops said.
State lawmakers plan to vote today on a host of measures that would shield survivors from retaliation, make state and all public employers subject to the Human Rights Law, and extend the statute of limitations for some discrimination claims.
Attorney General Letitia James has set her sights on Con Edison after the energy company unexpectedly raised prices this winter, with some customers seeing their rates double.
Trump and kids Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. appealed a judge’s ruling that they be deposed as part of James’ probe into the Trump Organization’s business practices.
Immigrant advocacy groups have launched a campaign to push Hochul and the state Legislature to include a $345 million proposal to expand health care coverage to low-income undocumented New Yorkers.
After a TU investigation found horse racing in New York has been buttressed by $2.9 billion in state benefits since 2008, a handful of state lawmakers and advocacy groups mounted a renewed push for passage of two bills to end two subsidies to the sport.
Legislators and advocates called for good cause eviction protections as they released a report from the Pratt Center for Community Development stating that Black renters are three times more likely to be evicted than their white counterparts.
The man whose independent 2020 review found New York courts have a “second class system of justice” for people of color is endorsing Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s plan to address the longstanding problem through an overhaul of the court system.
City of Mechanicville schools posted a short statement Sunday saying its superintendent “is taking a vacation leave,” but neither district officials nor Superintendent Bruce Potter will explain the circumstances surrounding the sudden absence.
Proctors says it no longer requires audience members to show proof of a coronavirus vaccination when they enter its venues.
A Schenectady police detective is facing charges after being accused of harassment.
Dr. Bronner’s, the liquid soap company best known for its teeny-font labels preaching brotherly love and world peace, would like you to consider the benefits of mind-altering drugs.
