Good Thursday morning.
So, yesterday, there was a clash between two branches of state government – executive and legislative – over who should head the third branch of government (judicial, in case you have forgotten your grade school Social Studies).
I’m not going to opine on the incredibly fascinating constitutional debate over whether the Judiciary Committee actually had the right to reject the governor’s high court appointment, or, as she maintains, he’s legally entitled to a hearing – and vote – by the entire chamber.
Since I’m no longer a reporter, I now watch from the sidelines as these debates play out, and, as some people might say, I bring my popcorn and enjoy the show.
Which brings us to the topic of today’s post – not, as you might have thought, a constitutional crisis in the making – but rather the all-American snack food that somehow became the much of choice for movie-goers across the nation.
As an aside, when I lived in France, my friends were appalled when I asked where the food was at the movie theater. Somehow in other countries, they don’t see every event, spectacle, and occasion as an excuse to chow down. Funny, their obesity rates are also lower per capita, although steadily rising.
What was I saying? Oh yeah, popcorn.
Though popcorn is often connected to American pastimes like baseball games (often in the the caramel and peanut version known as Cracker Jack), the aforementioned movies, carnivals, circuses, and fairs, corn actually was domesticated about 10,000 years ago in what is now modern-day Mexico, and there’s evidence that it was popped in Peru as early as 4700 BC.
Popped corn kernels were used by the Aztecs in ceremonial headdresses and other decorative items, and was also given as an offering to the gods – particularly Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility.
Here in the U.S., corn started to be cultivated in a widespread manner in the mid-1800s, thanks to the invention of the moldboard plow, which cuts soil, lifts it, and turns it using a curved plate, making seeds easier to plant and water.
Popped corn was first popular as a breakfast cereal, and is still enjoyed in that form (to some degree, although highly processed and sugared) today. It was the precursor to corn flakes, which, as you might know, have a somewhat checkered past. I’ll let you delve into that yourself if you have some time to click here, though be forewarned, it’s a little NSFW.
Popcorn balls, which are traditionally stuck together with a mixture of butter and some sort of sweetener, were a popular Victorian-era treat, gift, and decoration – especially around Christmas.
During the Great Depression, popcorn, which has always been an affordable food stuff, was sold by street vendors for just a few cents a bag – something even the most down-on-their-luck individuals could sometimes scrounge together. It was also around this time that popcorn as a movie theater snack started catching on – again, largely due to its low overhead cost and high rate of return.
Fast forward to the post WW II era, when Raytheon was looking for a peacetime application for microwaves, this lead to the invention of microwave ovens in the 1940s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that mass-produced microwave popcorn was born.
Single-serve microwave popcorn is now big business, with the leading manufacturer – ConAgra Foods – selling about $488 million of the stuff in 2021 alone.
Personally, I prefer my popcorn stove-popped, and I like it with some nutritional yeast and a squirt of olive or coconut oil. A dusting of cinnamon sugar is also good, if you want to go in a sweet, rather than savory, direction. But no fake butter substitute for me.
It’s the toppings that get you in trouble, by the way, because naked popcorn – while not terribly tasty, and even texturally off-putting to some people – is pretty darn nutritious and a good source of fiber. However, movie popcorn, even the unbuttered version, is loaded with calories, fat and salt. My advice? Stay far, far away. Try paying attention to what’s on the screen.
There’s a winter weather advisory on tap starting at 11 a.m. this morning and lasting through tomorrow at 1 p.m. We’re in for a slippery wintery mix mess, with a combination of snow and ice that is going to make driving – and pretty much walking around – treacherous. Be prepared. Temperatures will be in the low-to-mid 30s.
In the headlines…
President Biden plans to nominate four people to federal judge positions, including a red state district court nominee who has the support of their state’s Republican senators – essential endorsements that previously proved a challenge for the White House.
The Biden administration and House Republicans are heading toward an initial debt ceiling deadline today without even a hint of an endgame, ensuring a months-long standoff that’s poised to rattle financial markets amid worries about a recession this year.
Biden is on track to signal his reelection plans in the next few weeks, despite a self-inflicted classified documents controversy that has energized the GOP and put his political team on its heels.
Biden’s aides say a detailed timeline for announcing a re-election bid has not been finalized, but they have agreed on at least one benchmark: He won’t launch a 2024 campaign before delivering his State of the Union Address next month.
South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn said that he expects Biden to run for reelection in 2024 and warned fellow Democrats against challenging him.
Biden will travel to California’s central coast today to visit areas that have been devastated by extreme weather.
The parade of atmospheric rivers that pounded California for three weeks finally faded on Monday, enabling the state to begin lengthy repairs to roads and levees as the White House announced Biden planned to survey the damage.
Biden and Kamala Harris chose DC’s own Ghostburger for their cheeseburger fix this week.
Some of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken defenders will sit on the House’s main investigative committee, underscoring their high-profile roles in the new Republican majority.
House Republicans’ installation of some of their most incendiary conservatives on the Oversight Committee is sparking an unexpected feeling inside the White House: unbridled glee.
Most Republican House members from New York are ready to see GOP Rep. George Santos leave less than two weeks after he took office, with six saying he should resign for a string of campaign lies exposed after his election.
Santos has quietly opened a district office in Queens.
Writing in the New York Times, former Republican Rep. Pete King says:”I cannot imagine how Mr. Santos possibly thinks he can be effective as a member of the House, if he thinks about it at all.”
Santos has said consistently that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was working at her office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. That does not appear to be the case.
Santos used a phony name he thought sounded Jewish in one of his schemes, saying “the Jews will give more if you’re a Jew,” a former roommate says.
Santos got a grudging nod from controversial City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, who said she has resisted calling on the controversial congressman to resign because it would pave the way for a Democrat to replace him.
As a teen living in Brazil, Santos reportedly “enjoyed” drag, participated in at least one drag show, and went by the name “Kitara Ravache.”
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres in a new op-ed wrote that the House has been “hijacked by yet another liar, cheat and fraud,” in reference to Santos, who is currently facing various probes into his lies to voters and his campaign financing.
In a piece published by NBC News, Torres made a reference to his childhood growing up in the Bronx, drawing parallels between Santos and another New York City product, former President Trump.
Trump shared his efforts to return back to social media platform Facebook, saying in an interview that his ban from the social media platform was a “major business mistake.”
Trump confirmed his latest push in an interview with Fox News, claiming that the social media platform, owned by Meta Inc., lost $700 billion since he was banned.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a warning to Simon & Schuster about an upcoming tell-all book written by a prosecutor who quit the office’s investigation into Trump.
Retail spending fell in December at the sharpest pace of 2022, marking a dismal end to the holiday shopping season as rising interest rates, still-high inflation and concerns about a slowing economy pinched American consumers.
Microsoft became the latest addition to a growing list of big technology companies that have announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees because of overhiring during the pandemic and worries about the economy.
Three juvenile grizzly bears found disoriented and suffering from neurological issues such as partial blindness tested positive for avian flu, Montana wildlife officials confirmed.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, 42, said she would step down by Feb. 7 after over five years as leader, as the country grapples with the prospect of a recession stemming partly from its strict response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
China is likely to see 36,000 Covid deaths a day during the Lunar New Year holidays, making it one of the most deadly periods of the pandemic, according to an updated analysis of the largest outbreak the world has yet experienced.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has tested positive for Covid-19, the central bank announced yesterday morning. Powell, 69, is “experiencing mild symptoms,” according to the announcement
Powell is “up to date” with all COVID vaccines and boosters, the Fed said, and is working from home. “Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, he is working remotely while isolating at home,” the central bank said.
A recent study published in the science journal “Nature Medicine” found that symptoms of long COVID-19 can be categorized into four subtypes, a new finding that can allow for earlier detection of the condition.
Republican federal lawmakers are investigating the historic wave of COVID-19 pandemic fraud that struck New York, raising allegations of Democratic leadership failures and a potential political coverup.
In New York City, the number of people taking official COVID-19 tests — those traditional PCR tests given at hospitals and clinics – is the lowest it’s been since May 2020.
Kathy Hochul suffered a historic defeat in just the first few weeks of her new administration, becoming the first governor to lose her bid to appoint the state’s top judge, a major rebuke by progressives, unions and her Democratic colleagues in Senate.
After a combative hourslong hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-9 against the nomination of Justice Hector D. LaSalle, whose nomination was strongly opposed by progressives who saw him as too moderate.
The committee’s rejection — the first time that New York lawmakers have voted against a governor’s choice for chief judge — laid bare how vulnerable Hochul, a Buffalo-area Democrat, may be to a challenge from her own party.
“While this was a thorough hearing, it was not a fair one, because the outcome was predetermined,” Hochul said in a statement, noting that several senators in the newly expanded Judiciary Committee publicly stated how they would vote before the hearing.
A spokeswoman for Hochul said she was consulting with various experts—including an outside litigator—but hadn’t yet decided on a course of action.
“(T)his judicial pick has in many ways become the first battle in a consequential, fast-expanding war in Democratic politics. And Hochul has badly mangled the process.”
Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said in a statement that the Judiciary Committee “failed to follow its Constitutional responsibility” by blocking LaSalle’s nomination.
The battle over LaSalle’s nomination was rooted in both judicial policy and politics, as progressive Democrats in New York showed their strength.
“This is a very big deal,” three-term Republican Gov. George Pataki told The NY Post. “It’s a question of who we have running the state – the governor or radical leftists in the Legislature.”
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request from firearms dealers in New York to block parts of a recent state law that they said violated their Second Amendment rights.
“There’s no more room” in New York City to house asylum seekers, Mayor Eric Adams said, putting new pressure on the Biden administration to immediately address the migrant crisis.
Adams traveled to Washington to continue his campaign on an issue that has become a focal point of his mayoralty: immigration.
Adams is opening the door once again to the possibility of housing asylum seekers on cruise ships — his latest response to the migrant crisis that’s so far cost the city an estimated $300 million.
The Adams administration is blocking the government agency that oversees Rikers Island from independently accessing video footage from inside the jails, officials said.
For years, city officials have been subject to a temporary ban on contacting their ex-employers after leaving government jobs. As Adams’ former chief of staff starts a high-end consulting shop, the Council is moving to rein in the lucrative practice even further.
New York’s first recreational marijuana store is surrounded by shops that illegally sell cheaper pot products, challenging the state-sanctioned dispensary’s financial prospects, according to a blunt new City Council report.
An astounding 1,400 shops have popped up around New York City that are illegally selling cannabis products — a situation that alarmed lawmakers decried as the “Wild, Wild West” during a City City Council hearing.
Outdoor dining has proliferated in parts of New York City where it had once been limited or nonexistent — including areas where people of color or low-income households make up the majority of the population, a new report has found.
Two dozen construction executives surrendered to face bribery and kickback conspiracy charges accusing them and 26 companies of stealing $5 million from developers who built luxury buildings and boutique hotels.
A powerful judge blasted James Dolan’s bizarre ban on his legal enemies from Knicks games as “totally crazy” and “the stupidest thing ever,” but the billionaire nevertheless stepped up the controversial clampdown just days later, court papers reveal.
Nemat Shafik, the president of the London School of Economics, will be the first woman to lead Columbia University.
Many families in New York are now paying so much in rent that they are having trouble covering all of their children’s needs, including food — causing a call for the state to provide free school lunches and more help in subsidizing child care.
An attorney for convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere will ask a federal appeals court in Manhattan next week to disqualify the judge who presided over the NXIVM leader’s 2019 trial from hearing Raniere’s latest bid for freedom.
Transportation Security Administration officials are hoping that a recent pay raise for security screeners will expand the applicant pool at Albany International and other airports.
A news conference will be held this morning at East Greenbush Town Hall regarding the 28-year-old cold case of Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins, a Rensselaer County woman who was found dead in her apartment in 1994 at the age of 81.
Saratoga County Chair Todd Kusnierz has made his committee assignments and, as some observers expected, those who opposed or criticized his leadership have been relegated to only one committee each, while his allies serve on up to five each.
Town leaders raised 2023 property taxes in the Greene County Town of Cairo by 15 times what they intended after a clerical error.
Hindu and Buddhist leaders want Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown to change the name of its Nirvana IPA and apologize, complaining that the moniker is disrespectful to their beliefs.
Prosecutors are expected to announce today whether charges will be brought in the fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust” in New Mexico, according to a statement from the District Attorney’s Office in Santa Fe.
