Good Thursday morning.
I don’t know about you, but I could use just a brief break from politics – you know, just for as long as it takes to write and/or read this post, and then we can get back to obsessing over the fallout, analysis, legal challenges, recounts, 2024 speculation, etc.
Deal? Deal.
Let’s talk about something equally divisive, shall we? Something like frosting.
The stakes here are far lower than, you know, who makes decisions that impact our lives and the planet we live on, but it is a subject that is no less hotly debated by those who feel very strongly allied to one camp or the other.
I’m not sure about you, but I am not a huge fan of cake. We are entering pie season, and I am here for it.
But if i AM going to do cake, I like to have a manageable portion – a corner slice I wouldn’t say no to, just to be clear, because the frosting to cake ratio of a corners slice is just about right, IMHO. Frosting flowers are a little more de trop, and I do prefer ganache or cream cheese frosting to buttercream.
BTW, if you think I’ve spent too much time thinking about this subject – think again. There are entire Reddit threads dedicated to this very subject. And also Facebook videos. (I’ll let you do the Googling if you’re really so inclined. Otherwise, you’re going to have to trust me on this one).
One thing I don’t like to do is eat frosting by the spoon – or finger – full. Frosting and cake were meant to be eaten together, whatever your ideal ratio may be. But there are so many fails out there…The solution? Cupcakes.
Cupcakes, which have grown so significantly in popularity that they now have entire bakeries dedicated entirely to them and nothing else, are a uniquely American treat.
The idea of tiny, bite-sized cakes dates back to the 1700s. Back then, it was known as the number cake, or the 1-2-3-4 cake, because the recipe called for 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour, 4 eggs, along with 1 cup of milk and 1 spoonful of baking soda.
The actual word “cupcake” didn’t appear in print until 1828, when author and cooking expert Eliza Leslie published a cookbook called ‘Receipts’, which included the recipe for the first cupcake.
The first commercially produced cupcakes were made by Hostess (originally the Continental Baking Company) in 1919, which debuted a line of so-called “snack cakes.” The first Hostess cake was its signature chocolate with vanilla frosting and white icing – still around today, in fact. But the very first cupcake sounds a lot more plain vanilla…I don’t think it even had frosting.
And thus we come to the point of this post: Happy National Vanilla Cupcake Day! As of 2018, approximately, 770,000,000 cupcakes were eaten in the United State every year. Do your part to help hit the quota.
It’s going to warm up a hair today with temperatures in the mid-60s and sunny skies.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden claimed vindication the day after the midterm elections, saying Democrats had “a strong night” and he planned to change nothing about his approach despite facing the likelihood of divided government in the nation’s capital.
Biden reveled in his party’s unexpected success during a midterm postmortem, declaring it a “good day for democracy and, I think, a good day for America.”
With several key races still to be decided, Republicans remained favored to take control of the U.S. House, though the results fell short of the sweeping gains some in the GOP anticipated.
Weaker-than-expected results in the midterm elections for Republicans set off a wave of second-guessing of the party’s approach in a campaign seen as a prime opportunity to pick off dozens of seats from weakened Democrats.
In many states that were decided by the narrowest margins in 2020, Democrats came closer to matching their presidential-year vote totals than did their GOP opponents.
Midterm voters appeared more likely to support candidates of different parties when casting their ballots this year, surveys showed, as many gravitated toward more qualified politicians.
The president said he is eager to work with congressional Republicans after the midterm elections, but stressed he would not compromise on issues like abortion rights and Social Security.
Biden said he plans to run for re-election in 2024 but added that he would make a final decision early next year.
Asked whether Elon Musk posed a threat to national security, Biden said that the billionaire’s “relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at.”
“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” Biden said. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it’s worth being looked at.
Biden says he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner now that the U.S. midterm elections are over.
Biden said he plans to discuss how the U.S. and China can avoid conflict when he meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his coming Asia trip, but won’t make concessions on critical issues.
Voters in much of the country reinforced the status quo on abortion rights, choosing candidates who are likely to either maintain existing protections or restrictions in their states, or deepen them.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced he will stump for Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker today as the campaign shifts to next month’s runoff election.
Former President Donald Trump reportedly was “furious” about Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz’s loss in the crucial Pennsylvania Senate race, and was blaming those in his circle — including wife Melania — for urging him to support the now-failed candidate.
Tuesday wasn’t only a disappointing night for Republicans as their predicted red wave of Election Day wins hardly met expectations — it was also a reality check for the GOP as to whether or not Trump is the right candidate to lead the presidential ticket in 2024.
Regardless of the reality with GOP primary voters, Republican elites — and other anti-Trump Republicans — sense blood in the water. There’s an increased likelihood of a larger, more boisterous primary field competing against Trump in 2024.
Republicans flipped four congressional seats in New York, the most of any state in the country. How did this happen in one of the nation’s most liberal states?
The first openly gay Republican elected to Congress, George Santos, said he won a Long Island House seat by running a “common sense” platform.
A tearful Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney conceded to his Republican rival Mike Lawler, becoming the first active Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman in 40 years to be ousted from his seat.
If the New York State Court of Appeals hadn’t overturned the proposed congressional boundaries drawn by the Democratic-controlled state Legislature earlier this year, Max Rose might have won NY-11by almost 4,000 votes, giving the seat to Democrats.
Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising among babies under 6 months old, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging mothers to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of infection in those not yet eligible for shots, Director Rochelle Walensky said.
The death of a loved one, financial or food insecurity, or a newly developed disability were some of the strongest predictors of whether a patient hospitalized for COVID-19 would experience symptoms of long COVID a year later, a new study finds.
An FDA advisory panel voted 5-to-8 to recommend rejecting a new drug for patients hospitalized with Covid-19, ruling that a glimmer of potential life-saving benefit couldn’t make up for a long list of questions around the company’s main trial.
Shanghai reported no new domestically transmitted symptomatic coronavirus cases yesterday, the same as a day earlier, while four local asymptomatic cases were reported, also the same as the previous day, the city government said.
China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou has locked down more than 5 million residents, as authorities rush to stamp out a widening Covid outbreak and avoid activating the kind of citywide lockdown that devastated Shanghai earlier this year.
Oil declined as US crude inventories rose while China struggles to contain rising Covid cases.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., maker of most of the world’s iPhones, warned that consumer electronics revenue will fall this quarter as it grapples with a Covid outbreak that walled off its main production base in central China.
Authorities in Korla, Xinjiang’s second largest city, are investigating allegations that a quarantine facility neglected a Covid-19 patient who is said to have died on November 2, after he was transferred to a hospital.
An Albany County woman is going to be spending the next 16 months in prison after admitting to taking part in COVID-19 relief fraud.
The contest between Gov. Hochul and her GOP challenger, Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin, was not quite as close as some Democrats had feared. But she still experienced the closest contest any Democrat had faced in a New York governor’s race in two decades.
In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Zeldin conceded the race, calling it a “once in a generation campaign”and praising the “unrelenting passion and hard work” of his volunteers.
While Zeldin won the state geographically, he could not overcome the surge of voters from New York City which helped power Hochul to victory.
He may not have secured his own personal victory, but Zeldin insisted to The NY Post he had “zero regret” over the race he ran — as records show he notched the best total-vote performance of any GOP candidate since Nelson Rockefeller 52 years ago.
The Working Families Party and its progressive allies took credit for Hochul’s election to a full term, claiming their support made the difference in the Democrat’s close win over Zeldin.
For Hochul, the question now is whether the election results — Democrats also lost seats in the state’s House delegation and the State Legislature — will influence her leadership and agenda in her first full four-year term as governor.
With a few races still up in the air, New Yorkers were parsing returns and finding signs of both Democratic resilience and some surprising Republican gains.
Democrats in New York were clinging to their supermajorities in the State Legislature as of yesterday morning, with a handful of competitive races still too close to call, stalling Republican hopes of curbing Albany’s leftward tilt.
Whether Democrats in the Senate will retain a two-thirds “supermajority” remains uncertain because of at least two close races that have not been called.
Embattled Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brushed off New Yorkers’ concerns about rising crime Wednesday — a day after Hochul won the governor’s race, saving him from the chopping block.
The state has collected $542 million in mobile sports betting taxes through the week ending on October 30, plus $200 million in licensing fees and more than $740 million in revenue which will go toward education.
Mayor Eric Adams signed a package of child care bills aimed at supporting working parents, caregivers and families.
The seven bills aim to not only provide support to mothers and families across the city, but also offer help to caregivers.
Adams said that city voters, in backing a trio of Election Day ballot questions promoting racial justice, had placed equity at the forefront of governance.
Brooklyn Councilman Kalman Yeger warned that two new social justice provisions added to the city’s charter through ballot measures passed on Election Day could open the door to a slew of lawsuits.
A New York appellate court has declined, at least for now, to stay a judge’s order appointing an independent monitor to oversee former President Donald Trump’s family real estate firm.
Just when it seemed the high-flying art market couldn’t soar any higher, paintings and sculptures from the collection of the Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, hit the $1.5 billion mark at Christie’s New York, making it the biggest sale in auction history.
One person has died and 13 have been hospitalized- including seven in New York – in a listeria outbreak across six states that most likely was caused by contaminated deli meat and cheese, federal health officials said.
Sharon Lokedi won Sunday’s NYC Marathon in her debut at the distance. Because she was little known, she was not subjected to the pre-race drug testing program.
Unemployment in the construction industry in New York fell to 4.3 percent from 6 percent a year ago in September, according to the Empire State Associated Builders and Contractors.
There will be no internet in Albany schools for one more day, after an attempted cyberattack last weekend, school Superintendent Kaweeda Adams said.
A person associated with the city’s Sheridan Preparatory Academy who had monkeypox symptoms has tested negative for the virus, according to the Albany schools superintendent.
The city of Albany’s Veterans Day parade this year will start at 11 a.m. Friday at the corner of Ontario Street and Central Avenue.
Just two hours before the all-Republican Town Board was to meet on Monday, members Amy Flood and Amy Standaert resigned, faced with claims by Supervisor Phil Barrett alleging they were engaged in a conspiracy to damage his political career.
Elon Musk has already dumped the gray “official” check mark, and pointed to Twitter Blue, the company’s revamped subscription service that charges people $7.99 to obtain blue check marks and other benefits.
Meta is laying off 13% of its staff, or more than 11,000 employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees.
Warren Beatty, the famed “Bonnie and Clyde” actor and Oscar-winning director, was accused in a lawsuit this week of sexually assaulting a girl in 1973 when she was 14 and 15.
