Good Tuesday morning. Hope you’re having fun digging out from the snow, which is a lot more than I bargained for. Perhaps I should be paying closer attention to the forecast?
Before we jump into today’s post, a question for the collective hive mind…A friend who is apparently an avid reader of my morning musings, (hello, you know who you are), thinks that they should be collected into a book of some sort.
My response to anyone who suggests book writing to me – and that has happened on a few occasions over the course of the 25+ year career in and around New York politics and government – is always the same:
Have you seen the remainders table at your local (insert big box bookseller name here)? There are already so many books in the world, some of them actually worth reading, but a fair number of them, well, not. Sorry to be blunt, but let’s be honest, there’s a lot of dreck out there. Why add to it? It seems like the ultimate form of hubris.
Maybe set the bar lower, like with a substack? But again, the idea that people would actually pay to read my 3 a.m. mental spillover begs credulity. If I were to go in any of these directions, though, I would only have one person edit: Eric Kuo. (Hi, Eric!) The man is an editing machine. He has been keeping me honest in the error department for well over a decade now, and he does it for FREE.
Mad props.
Moving on to things that actually matter: Today is the 35th day of winter, and there are 55 days left until spring.
I have heard that some folks make it a sort of game to guess what I might choose to focus on in this space on any given day. And for those who are paying attention, a natural assumption, given my oft-stated love of peanut butter (and all things related to peanuts and nuts, writ large), would be that I would dedicate today’s opus to National Peanut Butter Day.
In the interest of shaking things up and avoiding predictability, and the fact that I could find no earthly reason WHY today has been designated as such, I have decided to go in a different direction – one that is entirely aspirational, as I have never actually eaten this dish, or, come to think of it, even seen it offered on any menu that I can recall.
Today is National Lobster Thermidor Day.
Lobster Thermidor is an old-school preparation that originated in France in the 1800s and may or may not have been created for Napoleon Bonaparte.
It also might have been the brainchild of the chefs at one of three different restaurants – Chez Marie and/or Maison Maire and/or Cafe de Paris – and named in honor of a controversial play about the French Revolution called, you guessed it, Thermidor.
Thermidor, by the way, translates into “the month of heat”, and was the eleventh month of the French revolutionary calendar, extending from July 20 to Aug. 18. There’s also something known as the Thermidorian Reaction, which, if you really want to delve deeply into the history of the French Revolution and Maximilien Robespierre, click here.
Whatever its true origin story, the dish is pure indulgence, consisting of cooked and diced lobster meat served in a rich wine and/or Cognac sauce made with heavy cream and also a variety of additional ingredients (depending on the recipe) like mushrooms, lobster stock, Dijon mustard, shallots, tomatoes, and cheese.
The mix is spooned into a hollowed-out lobster tail and topped with more cheese (typically Gruyère or Parmesan) and then broiled.
Needless to say, it takes some doing to make Lobster Thermidor, which is why it is either 1) not on the menu, or 2) very pricey, if available at all.
In case you were wondering, Lobster Thermidor and Lobster Newburg are kissing cousins, but are not exactly the same thing. It’s all in the sauce. Thermidor is deliberately thickened and flavored with white wine and dry mustard, whereas Newburg’s sauce contains cream and egg yolks, isn’t thickened, and usually features sherry instead of wine.
Though lobster is today associated with high-end eating and over-the-top decadence, that wasn’t always the case.
They used to be known as “cockroaches of the sea” and were so abundance that they were viewed as food for poor people – including prisoners and slaves. They were also sometimes used for fertilizer. Some indentured servants got so sick of eating lobster that there revolted until the colony of Massachusetts agreed not to force them to eat it more than three times a week.
These days, lobsters are, shall we say, problematic. Catching them is labor intensive, and the gear used to land them can be a hazard for endangered whales, which has caused them to be put on a so-called “red list” and pulled from the menu/fish counters by some retailers/restauranteurs. More on that here.
I can’t remember the last time I had a lobster all my own. I may have filched a few pieces over the past year or so from my dining companion’s lobster roll – worthy of another post sometime this summer, someone remind me; they are delicious and amazing, hot or cold, and preferably on a brioche roll. But a whole lobster isn’t something I would gravitate toward ordering, preferring to go in the scallop or sea bass direction, as a rule.
While I dream of sun-soaked days filled with lobster rolls – I wouldn’t say no to a clam or oyster roll with plenty of Tartar sauce, (if homemade and not pre-packaged), for the record – let us lament the weather.
We have a brief reprieve from Old Man Winter’s fury today, with cloudy skies and temperatures in the id-to-high 30s. But on Wednesday, it’s right back into the drink we go, with yet another winter storm bringing three to five inches on the horizon.
There’s time for that later. But first, the headlines…
Democrats are expressing alarm over President Biden’s classified documents controversy, with some criticizing the president as diminished in stature and his staff as irresponsible.
The White House pledged to “accommodate legitimate oversight interests” in response to House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer’s request for materials related to classified documents found at Biden’s office and Delaware home.
The White House didn’t commit to providing information to House Republicans investigating how classified material wound up in Biden’s private home and former office as his team continued to face sharp questions about the episode.
Biden will travel to Baltimore and New York City to tout the bipartisan infrastructure law, making two stops along the East Coast to discuss projects funded by the bill.
Arizona dismissed one of the first conservative-backed lawsuits that sought to block Biden’s student-loan forgiveness.
The Biden administration is threatening to veto Republican-led legislation that would restrict the release of oil from the country’s emergency reserve.
The stressed-out, stretched-thin Environmental Protection Agency, depleted during the Trump administration, is scrambling to write about a half dozen highly complex rules and regulations that are central to President Biden’s climate goals.
The House Jan. 6 committee report offered fresh evidence that former President Donald Trump was at the center of efforts to overturn election results in Georgia. Will he face criminal charges there?
A spokesperson for the former president would not say if the former president knew a notorious Philadelphia mobster, after the two men were photographed together at a Trump-owned golf club earlier this month. (The mob boss says Trump didn’t know him).
Since late last year, Trump has informed several people close to him that he doesn’t want to re-up the exclusivity agreement with his social media company, Truth Social.
Trump will make a stop Saturday in Salem, New Hampshire, ahead of a campaign event in South Carolina.
Another victim of Saturday night’s shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California succumbed to their wounds, bringing the death toll to 11, officials said.
The Hemet Police Department said in a statement that the suspected shooter, Huu Can Tran, visited the station twice earlier this month, on January 7 and 9.
Tran was “alleging past fraud, theft, and poisoning allegations involving his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago, and stated he would return to the station with documentation regarding his allegations but never returned.”
Tran was 72, divorced and a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to information from the police and legal documents.
The Los Angeles County sheriff, Robert Luna, said that investigators were looking “diligently” into suggestions that the gunman had been motivated by “jealousy or some relationship issues,” but that no such motivation had been confirmed.
Seven people were killed in two shootings yesterday at a mushroom farm and a trucking firm in a coastal community south of San Francisco, and a suspect was in custody, officials said.
It was the second mass shooting in California in just three days. A suspect, Zhao Chunli, 67, of Half Moon Bay, was found in his car in the parking lot of a local sheriff’s office substation.
An 18-year-old gang member cut off a court-ordered ankle monitor and went to an educational program for at-risk youths in Des Moines, Iowa, where he fatally shot two fellow students who were members of an opposing gang, the authorities said.
The FDA is considering a major shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy to simplify the process and perhaps adopt an approach similar to what is used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating.
The FDA said it expects to assess circulating strains of the coronavirus at least annually and decide in June which strains to select for the fall season, much like the process to update annual flu vaccines.
The New York State Department of Health is launching a new pilot program to test wastewater for the flu, RSV and other pathogens, in addition to COVID-19 and polio.
A new Siena College poll found 56 percent of registered voters said they approved of the job Gov. Kathy Hochul is doing – her highest approval rating yet for this survey, while 36 percent disapproved.
It’s a seven-point increase from Siena’s poll last month, which found the newly reelected governor with a 49 percent job-approval rating with 44 percent disapproving.
Hochul is still deciding whether to sue the state Senate after a key committee voted to reject her nominee for chief judge, Hector LaSalle.
State Republicans this week offered, at least in part, their support for Hochul’s proposal to provide more discretion to judges when they are determining whether to set bail for someone accused of a “serious crime.”
The same poll found that New Yorkers overwhelmingly think Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos ought to resign, especially voters from areas like the Nassau-based district he is fighting to hold.
A whopping 71% of suburbanites think he should quit so someone else can represent the district, while just 8% of them have a favorable opinion of Santos – the lowest of any group along with seniors in the poll of 821 registered voters conducted Jan. 15-19.
Cascading revelations about Santos’ pattern of lies and deception are putting increased scrutiny on powerful New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the fourth-ranking House Republican and a vocal supporter of Santos during his 2022 campaign.
Recently surfaced videos seem to suggest that Santos dressed as his drag persona over a period of at least three years, casting doubt on his claim that it was a one-off occurrence.
Hochul talked “community matters” with a high-powered campaign donor weeks before he got a $338 million contract to provide rapid tests as part of an alleged pay-to-play scheme as she ran for a full term of office.
New York’s gubernatorial line of succession needs to be clarified to ensure a clear procedure for when the governor is incapacitated or unable to serve, the New York State Bar Association.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has nominated an Albany Law School professor, Ava Ayers, to serve on New York’s newly formed lobbying and ethics watchdog.
The attorney general’s office has set up an online comment page giving members of the public seven days to submit comments on the nominee.
Amid high interest rates and low inventory, the slump in New York housing sales continued through December, with a 31 percent drop compared to December 2021, according to the state Association of Realtors.
Mayor Eric Adams isn’t too hot on Hochul’s proposal to ban gas stoves, declaring electric burners “just doesn’t cook for me.”
“People don’t realize electric stoves can’t give you the right setting when you are cooking,” he said. “You know I’m a good cook, and that [an] electric stove just, it doesn’t cook for me.”
While the details have yet to be fleshed out publicly, Hochul reiterated that her plan would not apply to gas stoves. She also vowed that the state would help with conversion costs through rebates and consider exemptions for industries that need them.
Adams, who has grown increasingly cranky lately with how he’s covered by the City Hall press corps, launched a newsletter that he claimed will counteract “distorted” journalism about his administration.
Those who sign up for hizzoner’s new “digital communications” program will hear directly from Adams and his administration about initiatives, policies and local events in their area, among other reports.
Adams demanded that the federal government mount a COVID-level response to help the Big Apple providing housing and social services to the thousands of migrants who have arrived in the city from the southern border.
Adams announced a new partnership with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Mastercard Inc. that will create the largest public-private loan fund for small businesses in the city’s history.
Approximately 1,500 local businesses will be served by the fund — with loans up to $250,000 at a market-leading rate of 4 percent — unleashing unprecedented resources at a critical time in the city’s economic recovery.
Adams went on the offensive against critics who blasted his plan to use a cruise ship terminal to accommodate thousands of migrants who’ve flowed into the city, chiding them for minimizing the extent of the crisis.
Adams vowed crack down on surging crime in the Big Apple – but results have been mixed a year into his first term in office.
A a worsening crisis threatens Adams’ bold plans: There just aren’t enough people at the public agencies charged with running the city.
The Fox News meteorologist who was pummeled by a gang of rowdy teens on a Manhattan subway train says City Hall is blowing it by failing to protect Big Apple straphangers.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton urged black lawmakers to approve new measures to rid the streets of recidivist lawbreakers and help district attorneys prosecute crime.
The long-delayed Long Island Railroad terminal beneath Grand Central will finally open tomorrow, albeit as part of a soft-launch with limited service.
New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks said that the city will scrap proposals that would have co-located three Success Academy schools in public school buildings.
NYCHA collected just 65 percent of the rent it charged in the 12 months leading up to December, the lowest percentage in the agency’s nearly 100-year history and an alarming slide from the annual prepandemic numbers of 90 percent or higher.
The company that took over the contract to treat thousands of ill 9/11 responders around the country is still failing to do the job, advocates charge in a new letter to the firm’s parent company.
Las Vegas Sands is looking to set up a multibillion-dollar casino at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum site on Long Island.
State lawmakers repping Manhattan have introduced legislation to stop Madison Square Garden Entertainment CEO James Dolan from using “dystopian” tech to block lawyers tied to litigation against the company from attending events.
A former senior F.B.I. official in New York who oversaw some of its most secret and sensitive counterintelligence investigations was accused of taking money from a former Albanian intelligence employee and from a representative of a Russian oligarch.
Inspectors found that an anesthesiologist at a Brooklyn hospital made numerous errors in administering epidurals. Some were life-threatening. One was fatal.
Employees at the Empire State Building are getting new uniforms: light gray jackets and hats with bright blue trim, along with slacks and vests in the same light gray, replacing burgundy uniforms introduced 15 years ago.
The metro region has yet to receive its first measurable snowfall this winter — defined as at least 0.1 inches. If that continues until Sunday, it will match a record set in the winter of 1973, when the area went snowless until Jan. 29.
A jury was selected yesterday in the trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who is accused of stealing from his campaign and filing false documents to cover it up.
Saying she is tired of fighting with Saratoga County leadership, Supervisor Tara Gaston said she won’t run for a fourth term.
Albany-area universities, medical institutions and businesses pulled in $71.2 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health in 2022, a new analysis by the Center for Economic Growth found.
University at Albany men’s basketball coach Dwayne Killings pleaded not guilty to an assault charge that accuses him of pushing a player, Luke Fizulich, against a locker and slapping him across the face with an open hand before a 2021 game in Kentucky.
The brother of a 29-year-old Greene County man who died 13 months ago after bursting into flames as a police officer fired a Taser at him, has filed a federal lawsuit against the village of Catskill and three officers involved in the incident.
