Good Thursday morning.
It’s been a little heavy around here lately, so let’s lighten things up a bit, shall we? After all, it’s 5 o’clock, (p.m., that is) somewhere – actually, it’s 9 p.m. in New Zealand, the perfect time for a little nightcap.
Today is National Whiskey Sour Day, celebrating a drink traditionally made with whiskey (high proof bourbon is the preferred poison of choice in the US, though it’s often made with gin or brandy in the UK), lemon juice (fresh, not bottled), sugar (simple syrup if you want to get fancy) and one (raw) egg white. The drink should be garnished with an orange slice and a Maraschino cherry – and maybe Angostura bitters if you’re feeling daring.
Why the egg white? It gives the drink a silky texture and balances out the flavors. Though apparently, the egg white was a late addition to the whiskey sour, as early recipes do not include it.
(Other drinks that feature egg whites include: the gin fizz, the pisco sour, and the pink lady, among others. And if you do order one of these, be sure to consume it quickly, ass it goes without saying that a raw egg white doesn’t keep well).
Modern bartenders reportedly feel that the egg white elevated the drink and made it more refined.
None other than Jerry Thomas, who penned the first bartender’s guide, How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon Vivant’s Companion, in 1862, included this element in the whiskey sour. Generations of bartenders have faithfully followed suit, as his book essentially defined the American school of drinking for the century-and-a-half following its publication.
Thomas’ guide was actually the first official mention of the whiskey sour, though it was likely enjoyed for many years prior to the book’s release. Reportedly, it was a drink originally created and enjoyed by sailors in the 1800s, who lacked fresh water and vitamin C on long voyages at sea, and were therefore at risk for contracting scurvy.
To ward this off, they would bring aboard citrus fruits that kept well and lasted a long time – notable lemons and limes and oranges – and also whiskey, which was easy to keep at room temperatures and had the added bonus of, let us say kindly, taking the edge off. It also had the bonus of not going bad easily.
The original whisky sour recipe reportedly was as follows:
- (Use a small bar-glass.)
- Take 1 large tea-spoonful of powdered white sugar dissolved in a little Seltzer or Apollinaris water
- The juice of half a small lemon
- 1 wine-glass of Bourbon or rye whiskey
Fill the glass full of shaved ice, shake up and strain into a claret glass. Ornament with berries or top with a float or red wine.
Apparently the next mention in print of the whiskey sour appeared in an 1870 edition of the Waukesha Plainsdealer, a Wisconsin newspaper, though it was spelled “whisky” in the British manner.
However you spell it, this drink has staying power. It was considered the best possible alcoholic beverage a man could consume it its heyday, and while it perhaps is not longer at the top of everyone’s must-order list, it’s certainly still around.
To be perfectly honest, I’ve never had one. But it does strike me as a bit of a colder weather drink, so maybe it wouldn’t be the best option for today, when the forecast is calling for temperatures in the high 80s, with mostly sunny skies. But hey, you do you.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden announced he’s canceling $10,000 in student debt for Americans making under $125,000 a year, fulfilling a campaign promise and garnering criticism from across the political spectrum.
“An entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for an attempt, at least, at a college degree,” Biden said. “The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate you might not have access to the middle-class life that a college degree once provided.”
Biden opened his remarks at the White House by talking about how his father’s own struggle to pay the future president’s higher education bills informed his decision to grant the relief.
Here are details of Biden’s new plan, including how much will be forgiven and who is eligible.
Biden has appointed Kimberly Cheatle to be the next director of the Secret Service, calling her “a distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills.”
The president said in a statement that Cheatle “was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service.”
Biden announced a new $2.98 billion security assistance package to Ukraine as the country continues to fight for its sovereignty six months after Russia’s full-blown invasion.
Biden marked Ukraine’s Independence Day with $3 billion in security assistance, Washington’s largest aid package since Russia’s invasion six months ago but one that could take months or even years to arrive in Kyiv.
At least 22 people were killed in a missile strike on a rail station in eastern Ukraine, officials said. Celebrating the country’s Independence Day, Ukrainian leaders urged resolve.
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Biden’s job-approval rating has shot up 5 percentage points since early August — its largest and most sudden change to date.
According to a new opinion poll by Reuters and Ipsos, Biden’s approval rating has risen to 41%, the highest number he’s seen since early June.
The president still has a long way to go toward convincing the nation that he deserves another term in the White House, but the new poll is a promising sign for his administration — and for members of the Democratic Party.
A federal judge in Texas late on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing new guidance in the Republican-led state requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women regardless of state bans on the procedure.
A federal judge blocked Idaho from enforcing its near-total abortion ban in certain emergency situations, an early victory for the Justice Department in a case it filed this month.
The Biden administration said it would transform the DACA program, which provides deportation protections to more than 600,000 young immigrants in the country illegally known as Dreamers, into a federal regulation to strengthen it against legal challenges.
First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 in a “rebound” case, though her office says she does not have symptoms. The White House Medical Unit has notified close contacts, the first lady’s communications director Kelsey Donohue said in a statement.
Her experience mirrors that of President Biden, who was forced to return to isolation last month after his initial bout with Covid-19.
The president, who spent three days with his wife at their Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home, continues to test negative, the White House said. He also suffered a rebound case earlier this month after an initial recovery from the coronavirus.
Ryan Zinke, a former interior secretary, intentionally misled investigators regarding his department’s decision not to act on two Native American tribes’ requests to open a casino in Connecticut, the Interior Department’s Office of IG concluded in a new report.
Trump White House officials tried to pressure U.S. health experts into reauthorizing a discredited COVID-19 treatment, according to a congressional investigation that provides new evidence of efforts to override FDA decisions early in the pandemic.
Senior administration officials fought for the reauthorization of hydroxychloroquine after the FDA revoked its emergency clearance of the drug because data showed it was ineffective against Covid-19 and could lead to potentially dangerous side effects.
Between two million and four million Americans aren’t working due to the long-term effects of Covid-19, according to a new Brookings Institution report released this week.
The New York State Department of Health announced that it will be operating a COVID-19 vaccination clinic on the grounds of the Great New York State Fair. The clinic will be open during the entire fair, which began August 24 and ends September 5.
Gov. Kathy Hochul detailed how the state plans to spend $35 million on the New York State Fairgrounds.
With 23½ hours before the gates first open to the 2022 New York State Fair, the public got its first glimpse at this year’s butter sculpture, titled “Refuel Her Greatness—Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Title IX.”
Illegal weapon seizure rates are ticking up across New York while shootings continue to drop — and Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams credited the positive trend to their joint efforts against gun violence.
The dispute over bail reform has become irreconcilable for Adams and Hochul, a near-daily point of disagreement between two powerful Democrats. And it’s largely driven by one thing: The sides are relying on fundamentally different data.
Adams told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to brush up on his vocabulary amid their ongoing war of words over the relocation of migrants from the Lone Star State to the Big Apple. “Someone get this man a dictionary,” mayoral spokesman Fabien Levy said.
Five more buses arrived in New York City from Texas yesterday, the most buses in one day to reach the Big Apple.
About 10,000 Ukrainian refugees are expected to arrive in New York City after fleeing the deadly Russian invasion of their country, the city’s top immigration official said.
“Mayor Adams is a hypocrite,” Abbott’s campaign Press Secretary Renae Eze said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “He represents a self-declared sanctuary city, yet he’s complaining about a few hundred migrants being bused into his city.
Three of the eight state legislative candidates Adams backed lost their primaries to left-leaning alternatives, according to a list of the mayor’s endorsements provided by his adviser, Evan Thies.
“(Adams’) agenda is DOA in Albany,” one Democratic senator said. “It’s almost comical how bad his political instincts are.”
Progressive candidates in a slew of State Senate primaries withstood an influx of super PAC money and fended off challenges from more center-leaning candidates Tuesday night.
The results in high-profile congressional and state Senate primaries across New York could reflect whether voters are more concerned about inflation and crime than abortion rights and gun control.
A win by Democrat Pat Ryan to fill an open House seat in the Hudson Valley gave his party a jolt of good news, highlighting the potential importance of abortion in the midterms and prompting election watchers to downgrade expectations for a GOP wave.
A combination of good timing, old-school politicking and favorable turnout pushed the Ulster County executive to a surprise victory many experts see as an indicator of how the November midterms could go across the country
A series of strong special election showings, culminating in a New York win, have buoyed Democratic confidence, but a daunting map may still cost them the House.
Four summers after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise victory ignited Democrats’ left flank and positioned New York at the center of a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party, the battle has entered a new phase. But it is far from abating.
Rep. Jerry Nadler’s primary victory over Rep. Carolyn Maloney was so dominant that he carried all eight Assembly districts in Manhattan’s redrawn NY-12 — including on her East Side stomping ground, new figures from the city Board of Elections show.
Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City who made no secret of being a fan of the Boston Red Sox, will become a visiting teaching fellow at Harvard University in the fall.
Harvey Weinstein was granted permission to take his appeal of his 2020 sex crime conviction to the State of New York Court of Appeals.
New York’s highest court agreed to hear the 70-year-old disgraced movie mogul’s case after the appellate division, a lower court, upheld his conviction in June.
Convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell is being sued by her lawyers for refusing to cough up almost a million dollars in legal fees, according to new court filings.
Celebrity chef Mario Batali has settled a pair of lawsuits by two women alleging he sexually assaulted them in separate encounters in Boston.
Two women filed lawsuits in California alleging that George Foreman, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, sexually abused them when they were teenagers in California in the 1970s.
This afternoon the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will hold a public a hearing on congestion pricing.
Thousands of Uber drivers have emailed the MTA to protest the proposed congestion pricing fees and the MTA’s suggestion for drivers to become bus operators.
The Independent Drivers Guild is calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to exempt Uber, Lyft and other for-hire vehicles from congestion pricing tolls that could have a potentially devastating impact on drivers’ incomes.
The founders of Yoga to the People, a once wildly successful business that closed in 2020, are accused of concealing their income from the Internal Revenue Service for years.
The NYPD has ordered officers to avoid hanging out in groups and making chitchat with one another while on patrol, according to an internal memo.
The order marks a revision to the patrol guide for officers and supervisors — instructing them to ensure cops aren’t gathering together.
Twice as many fires caused by e-scooter batteries have been reported so far in 2022 than in the same period of 2021, data shows.
The New York Times has come under fire by pro-Israel outlets for employing multiple freelancers who have a history of making anti-Semitic posts on social media.
Matt Castelli spent nearly 15 years hunting down terrorists. Now, after winning a Democratic primary, he is taking on North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik – a top Republican he says no longer adequately represents her upstate New York district.
About two hours from New York City, the Newburgh Vintage Emporium stores are luring choosy shoppers with a less picked-over selection.
Todd Shapiro, a New York City public-relations executive, is working to open a politics-focused upscale bar and next-door cigar lounge on Eagle Street, near City Hall and just down the hill from the state Capitol.
Called the War Room Tavern, the bar is taking over 42 Eagle St., home from fall 2014 until the beginning of the pandemic to Public House 42.
Marking an unusually bitter start to union negotiations, Capital Roots has canceled its premier fundraising event, the Autumn Evening gala that had been scheduled for Sept. 15 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy.
Nauman Hussain, who ran the limo company involved in the 2018 crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people, is scheduled to be “formally” sentenced next Wednesday to five years of probation after completing one year of interim probation.
Dick’s Sporting Goods has opened a new Warehouse Sale Store in Crossgates Mall.
Newbury Comics store is slated to open on the lower level of Crossgates Mall near AT&T in early October.
California regulators today will vote to put in place a sweeping plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars, state officials said, a move that the state’s governor described as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine.
The school board in Uvalde, Texas, is considering whether to fire district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who refused to attend a scheduled meeting yesterday on the topic and issued a statement criticizing officials and defending his own actions.
A federal jury found that Los Angeles County must pay Kobe Bryant’s widow $16 million over photos of the NBA star’s body at the site of the 2020 helicopter crash site that killed him.
Fifty years after the last human trip to the moon, NASA will launch a mission Monday that is designed to kickstart the next generation of lunar exploration.
Amazon is closing a telehealth service it built in-house for employees and businesses as the company looks to retool its healthcare offerings following the purchase last month of a line of primary care clinics.
