Good Monday morning. We’re in the home stretch of the holiday season, and this past weekend I did something entirely stupid, effectively putting my life in danger.
And no, I am not referring to the eight miles I ran in 20-degree weather Saturday morning, though I couldn’t feel my face or my toes for a good hour afterwards.
It was much worse – and far more dangerous than that.
I went to Target.
Yes, friends, two weekends before Christmas – and one full weekend before the first day of Chanukah (Sunday, Dec. 18) – with no inclement weather to keep bargain hunting shoppers home, I went to one of the busiest big box stores on the planet.
And let me tell you, it was a freaking madhouse. You would have thought they were giving away gold in there.
The irony is that I didn’t really even need to be there. I wasn’t shopping for anything in particular. I mean, I needed a few things, sort of, like a new book to read and some shampoo. But I could have waited, certainly, and life would have gone on.
But I had about half an hour to kill before meeting a friend for lunch, and do I thought, “I’ll just pop in here and grab the few items I have on my mental checklist.” Ha. Ha. Ha.
Not only was the store chock full of people, but there were TWO register open. Two. This is what the labor shortage has wrought. And people were shopping with a vengeance. The woman two carts ahead of me had so many items, it took about ten minutes to check her out. And then the cashier looked up and said, “It’s almost time for my lunch break.”
Thankfully, she decided to cut off the line at the person just behind me. I made it to lunch with five minutes to spare.
Never again. It’s online shopping all the way for me from here on out this holiday season.
If you’re feeling the same, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re running out of time to make the holiday delivery cutoff – roughly two weeks before Christmas, though that varies depending on the carrier and your shipping destination, and we have officially entered that window.
Today is Green Monday, which falls two Mondays before Christmas Day and is one of the retail industry’s busiest shopping days of the year, though it’s not nearly as well known as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
The term “Green Monday” was coined by eBay in 2007 after the site experienced some of its highest sales volume of the past 12 months. So this year, eBay will be celebrating Green Monday by offering some serious sales and extending those discounts through Wednesday of this week.
Other stores are also offering deals on this day.
Oh and in case you were wondering about the meaning of the name, though “green” has become synonymous with “sustainable” and “eco-friendly,” in this case we’re talking about the green of money. Cold hard cash. Nothing clean about it.
There’s a winter weather advisory in effect until 7 a.m. The total snow accumulation is only expected to be somewhere between three and six inches, depending on your location in the Capital Region (or beyond, in which case it could be more in the higher elevations or less the further south one goes).
The roads are likely to be slippery as drivers struggle to regain their winter road handling skills. Be careful out there. Temperatures will be in the mid-30s and the sun will be peaking out in the afternoon. ‘
Also, be forewarned that there’s more bad weather where that came from – of course there is, it’s winter – and it’s tracking to arrive just in time for holiday travel to kick into high gear. Thankfully, I don’t have plans to go anywhere, but if you do, act accordingly.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden’s approval rating surged after the Democrats’ stronger-than-expected showing in the midterm elections last month, according to a new poll.
“No thanks!” That’s how majorities of the public responded when the CNBC All-America Economic Survey asked if Biden or former President Donald Trump should run again for president.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will decide whether to run for president in the spring, he said.
Congressional leaders are set to return to the Capitol today under pressure to negotiate a spending bill that would fund the federal government’s operations beyond Friday.
Congressional leaders and the White House are struggling to reach a deal on a massive government funding package, warning that they almost certainly will need to pass a short-term measure to avert a shutdown at the end of the week.
New special counsel Jack Smith is moving fast on a pair of criminal probes around Trump that in recent months have focused on the former president’s state of mind after the 2020 election, including what he knew about plans to impede the transfer of power.
Congressional Republicans are splintering over how aggressively to run interference for Trump as he faces potential criminal prosecution, with only his closest allies planning to attack the Justice Department investigations now under Smith’s purview.
A super PAC that will back Trump’s latest run for the White House has quietly amassed a small group of megadonors that could be key to financing their efforts to bolster his 2024 campaign.
The Biden administration believes Russia will be open to discussing the release of Paul Whelan, the US Marine who was not freed with WNBA star Brittney Griner, because “they have things they want in this world,” according to a senior administration official.
Trump said he turned down a deal to release Whelan, who’s been detained by Moscow since 2018, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout during his time in the White House.
“I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals,” Trump said.
Bout said Griner “wanted to shake” his hand as they were passing each other on the Abu Dhabi airport tarmac.
The WNBA star spent more than half of the 18-hour trip chatting with negotiator Roger Carstens and others aboard the plane, which landed Friday at an Air Force base in San Antonio, Tex.
A suspect in the United Kingdom’s deadliest terror attack was in US custody yesterday morning.
The arrest of Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi is a milestone in the decades-old investigation into the attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground.
Biden is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this week as the White House looks to narrow a gaping trust gap with Africa — one that has grown wider over years of frustration about America’s commitment to the continent.
Biden will announce U.S. support for the African Union’s admission to the G20 group of the world’s largest economies as a permanent member, a White House official said on Friday.
After the midterm elections, abortion rights advocates hope to harness public support for the long term, while abortion foes look to advance new laws in sympathetic courts and legislatures.
Among women who no longer have an abortion clinic nearby, many are turning to abortion pills ordered online, outside the U.S. medical system. As a result, once invisible illicit abortions are becoming increasingly possible to track and count.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says it ordered a shutdown of the Keystone oil pipeline last week, after a leak of 14,000 barrels of crude oil was discovered in northeastern Kansas.
Two months after becoming entangled in a racism scandal that shook public trust in LA government, disgraced City Councilman Kevin de Leon has refused calls to resign and is attempting to rehabilitate his reputation as he faces a politically uncertain future.
China will abolish its Covid-19 trace tracking service, the “Mobile Itinerary card,” tomorrow.
One of China’s top health experts has warned of a surge in Covid-19 cases, state media said, in the wake of the government’s decision to abandon its hardline coronavirus strategy.
A sluggish economy continues to leave many young people in China unemployed, with few job prospects or hopes to tap into the rising incomes their parents enjoyed during boom times.
Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.
COVID-related hospitalizations in the United States are up 30% over the last two weeks, with older patients accounting for many of those cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
State health officials are warning people that time is running out to get vaccinated before gathering with family over the holidays as Covid-19 cases surge nationwide alongside unseasonably severe waves of flu and respiratory syncytial virus.
An “unusually high concurrent spike” of virus cases in New York City, including flu and a mix of Covid-19 variants, led health officials on Friday to strongly recommend that people wear high-quality masks indoors and in crowded outdoor settings.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have both voiced support for a legislative pay hike.
“I believe they deserve a pay raise.”Hochul said. “They work extremely hard. It’s a year around job. I’ve been with them many times in their districts, they work very hard and they deserve it.”
The Schenectady Gazette says now is “not the time” for a legislative pay raise.
The fact that some of the charges against former LG Brian Benjamin have been thrown out demonstrates how hard it has become to prove corruption cases, experts say.
Sometime this month, the Prison Redevelopment Commission, tasked by Hochul with coming up with a plan to reuse the now shuttered Ogdensburg Correctional Facility among a dozen other prisons closed since 2009, is expected to reveal its findings.
A Manhattan developer that Attorney General Letitia James indicted for stealing two Harlem brownstones worth $4 million is now off the hook after a state appellate panel found the embattled prosecutor lacked jurisdiction to take the case.
Brooklyn Republican Lester Chang insists he has the proof to show he met residency requirements ahead of last month’s stunning election win over longtime Democratic Assemblyman Peter Abbate, Jr.
Legislation that would regulate mandatory overtime for nurses hasn’t been called to Hochul’s desk, making advocates worry she’ll decide to veto the proposals.
The police officers who protect New York public universities and state parks want the same retirement plan as state troopers and nearly all local law enforcement officers.
It remains unclear whether the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association will report any alleged misconduct by former leaders to an outside agency or enlist forensic auditors or other external investigative services to examine the issues.
Unaffiliated voters, or “blanks”, have now surpassed Republicans as the second-highest voter group in the state.
By bike, by vehicle or by scooter, New Yorkers will soon be able to order cannabis products to their doorsteps under a new delivery model just outlined by the Office of Cannabis Management.
Hochul signed legislation to expand accommodations for breastfeeding in the workplace. It calls for employers to provide a convenient and private space – one that has seating, running water, and electricity.
Mayor Eric Adams slammed a recent judicial decision that put a Manhattan man busted for a brutal caught-on-camera bat attack back on the street so quickly as the latest example of America’s legal system failing.
The psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey has been advocating tougher involuntary psychiatric treatment policies for 40 years. Now it’s paying off – including in New York City.
Adams’ move to involuntarily commit some mentally ill homeless people is the right way to both help them and improve safety for everyone else, former Gov. David Paterson said.
East Bronx residents are another step closer to a much-anticipated one-ride to Penn Station following the groundbreaking for a new Parkchester train station.
The price of a subway ride could rise to just over $3 in less than three years as transit leaders consider raising fares for the first time since before the pandemic began, presenting a potential hardship for those who rely most heavily on the depleted system.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene entertained Republicans in Manhattan Saturday night with a range of one-liners trolling the political left on hot-button topics.
Unlicensed marijuana shops are sprouting up like weeds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
SantaCon returned this past weekend to New York City.
Joyce Smith, the former acting Nassau County DA whom Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg recruited as part of his executive team after he took office in January 2022, will be gone by the end of the month.
Several former colleagues of the city Social Services Department’s new top spokesman, Stephen Witt, are coming forward with allegations that he made them uncomfortable by using sexist and culturally insensitive language at work.
Part-time faculty members at the New School have agreed to end a grueling, three-week strike over job security after reaching an agreement late Saturday with the university.
More than 5,600 taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers with arrests on their records claim the Taxi and Limousine Commission unjustly suspended their licenses as their criminal cases played out in court — and are now seeking damages, advocates said.
Six of the nine cops just hired by the Connecticut town’s police force are former NYPD officers — the latest proof of the flood of Finest from New York City to greener pastures.
The New York Police Department, with about 34,000 officers, has seen more resignations this year than at any time in the past two decades as other agencies have become more aggressive in recruiting from its ranks.
A Manhattan man who tangled with anti-Drag Story Hour protesters at a Midtown library was arrested after a confrontation with a cop, police said.
A waiver of application fees has resulted in a sizable increase in the number students applying to State University of New York colleges and universities.
Wynantskill Union Free School District voters go to the polls tomorrow to vote on a $4.9 million bond proposition to make repairs and upgrades at the Gardner-Dickinson School.
Common Roots Foundation has announced more than $20,000 in grants to nine organizations in the Capital Region.
Suspended under parachutes, an astronaut capsule without astronauts made a gentle splash in the Pacific on yesterday, bringing NASA’s Artemis I moon mission to a close.
