Good morning.
The bad news: It’s Monday.
The good news, Spring is just two weeks away, officially speaking. The countdown to March 20 IS SO ON, people. I am ready.
I have to warn you that we are back on the religion train today. There will likely be a few of these posts in the coming weeks as we are heading into a fairly active time from a holiness perspective.
Today’s holiday – Purim – though a lot of fun, often gets overlooked by Jews here in the U.S., especially once you’re over the age of, say, 12 or so, and/or without any kids in the house. (Purim starts this evening and runs through tomorrow night).
In Israel, though, Purim is a very popular holiday, celebrated by secular and religious Jews alike. It’s sort of like a cross between Halloween and Carnival, and involves a lot of drinking, partying, dancing, and general merrymaking – all while dressing in costume. (If you want to go down the rabbit hole on the costume thing, click here).
Also, it wouldn’t be a holiday without it’s own specific treat. The one associated with Purim, Hamantaschen, is a particularly delicious sort of cookie.
It’s a triangle-shaped bundle of deliciousness made of a buttery dough (more on the significance of the three-corner thing in a moment) that has a variety of fillings – poppy seeds are traditional, but there’s also prune, apricot (my personal favorite), chocolate, halva, strawberry….you get the picture.
Hamantaschen translates into “Haman’s Ear”, which is interesting because I was always taught that the triangle was a result of Haman’s three-cornered hat. Either way, what’s certain is that Haman is the villain in the Purim story. He plotted against the Jews and wanted them all dead, but was foiled by a beautiful (Jewish) queen named Esther.
The religious part of the Purim observance calls for reading the Megillah (the Book of Esther) – the WHOLE thing, and yes, that’s where the saying “the whole Megillah” comes from.
Traditionally, every time you head Haman’s name during the reading, you are expected to boo very loudly and/or make some sort of noise, usually with the assistance of a noisemaker called a “gragger” (you may also see that spelled “grogger” or “gregger”, because we’re big on alternate spellings in Judaism).
The reading of the Book of Esther is often also accompanied by a Purim spiel (spiel is the Yiddish word for skit) – a humorous play that may or may not parody the Purim story, or even lampoon members of the shul and/or local Jewish community.
The last and perhaps nicest Purim tradition, which I never actually engaged in myself but really like the idea of, is called Mishloach manot – gifts of food, often presented in baskets, that are exchanged between friends or neighbors, and sometimes just simply donated to needy strangers (these have their own specific name: Matanot l’evyonim).
It’s traditional for the collection of treats to include hamantaschen, along with a variety of other goodies. The baskets are often referred to by their Yiddish name: Shalachmanos.
I am not much of a baker, but I AM a big lover of hamantaschen. So if anyone happens to have an extra Shalachmanos hanging around, I’ll be working from home for most of the day.
We’re getting a nice reprieve from winter weather, with a spate of mostly dry days and temperatures fluctuating between the high 30s and low 40s. Looking ahead, though, well. As per usual, we’ve got today. Let’s focus on that.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden paid tribute to the heroes of the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march nearly 60 years ago and used its annual commemoration to warn of an ongoing threat to US democracy from election deniers and the erosion of voting rights.
“Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote … to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it anything’s possible,” Biden told a crowd seated on one side of the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a reputed Ku Klux Klan leader.
“Since the 2020 election, a wave of states (has passed) dozens, dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the big lie,” he added, referring to the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.
Biden called out Republicans for efforts to limit teaching parts of Black history as he marked the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
Biden’s campaign against high consumer costs is getting a boost from an unexpected source: corporate America.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., declined to endorse a potential reelection effort by Biden, saying he preferred to wait to see other options.
Former DNC chair Donna Brazile criticized Biden for saying he won’t veto plans to block the Washington, D.C. Council’s move to soften crime laws, saying it was a “huge mistake.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker predicted that no “serious” Democrats will enter the 2024 primary ring with Biden, who is expected to run for re-election, just a day after Democrat Marianne Williamson officially launched a bid.
Biden will travel to Philadelphia Thursday to unveil his latest budget proposal and plans to protect Medicare, according to the White House.
Biden plans to unveil his upcoming budget proposal to Congress with unusual fanfare, holding a campaign-style event intended to trumpet an economic agenda imperiled by high inflation and Republican debt limit threats.
Republican House leaders have told their colleagues to get out of Washington for field hearings that allow the party to take their message straight to voters, a costly pursuit that can be a boon to big donors.
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dug in this weekend for what is expected to be a bitter and personal race between the two for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he won’t run for president in 2024, removing a potential moderate from the Republican field, which already includes Trump.
Florida Republican lawmakers have indicated the session will be guided by DeSantis’s priorities, including a proposal that would expand gun rights, giving him a broader platform from which to launch a widely expected 2024 presidential campaign.
Biden will likely not attend the coronation of King Charles III this coming May, a pair of White House officials told TIME Magazine.
First lady Dr. Jill Biden offered a window into her marriage with the president, telling CNN in an interview that she maintains a “good balance” in the types of insight and advice she offers her husband.
A skin lesion removed from Biden’s chest last month was a basal cell carcinoma — a common form of skin cancer — his doctor said Friday, adding that no further treatment was required.
In a memo on Friday, the president’s doctor noted that basal cell lesions “do not tend to ‘spread’ or metastasize,” as other serious skin cancers do.
After a decade of talks, more than 190 countries have hammered out an agreement to protect biodiversity in the world’s oceans from threats such as overfishing, climate change and deep-sea mining.
The High Seas Treaty was finalized over the weekend after 38 straight hours of talks at United Nations headquarters in New York City.
The wreckage from a Norfolk Southern train derailment on Saturday in Ohio — the second such crash in the state in just over a month — was cleaned up by yesterday afternoon as investigators set to determine what led 28 cars to leave the tracks.
For the first time, public companies are revealing how much compensation their CEOs are actually poised to get, by tabulating gains and losses in the stock awards that make up much of their pay packages.
South Korea said that its companies would compensate people forced to work under Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, in a bid to improve poor relations that have impeded trade and cooperation between the two countries for generations.
China is targeting economic growth of “around 5%” this year, and will take steps to catalyze a rebound after stalling under the weight of strict COVID controls last year, according to the country’s outgoing premier, Li Keqiang.
A top Russian scientist who helped develop the country’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was found dead in his apartment last week, according to a Telegram post by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
The World Health Organization has urged all countries to reveal what they know about the origins of Covid-19, after claims from several US government agencies that a Chinese lab leak was behind the disease were furiously denied by Beijing.
In the year following infection, individuals who experience long Covid are at high risk for a range of adverse health outcomes, including a doubled risk of death, according to a new study published Friday in JAMA Health Forum.
Trial data show that an antiviral called ensitrelvir shortens symptoms of mild to moderate COVID-19 by about a day — and is the first drug to make a statistically significant cut in the number of days people test positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Long Island pols vented their rage Friday over what they called an “absolutely rushed” rollout by Gov. Kathy Hochul of the Grand Central Madison rail hub – causing mayhem for suburban commuters all week long.
A tumultuous opening week for Grand Central Madison train service has Hochul calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to get back on track.
Amtrak has agreed to add what MTA officials called “the missing ingredient” in their plan to connect Metro-North commuters to Penn Station — a project facing delays and cost overruns because of a lack of coordination between the two sides.
Hochul faces resistance on her affordable housing plan from both ends of the political spectrum — progressives who want greater tenant protections to avoid evictions, and moderates and Republicans who want to avoid state mandates on the suburbs.
Creating what’s known as Good Cause Eviction bill has long been on the wish list of housing advocates. But in this session, their wish may actually come true as Albany lawmakers look for ways to include it in a larger package of bills affecting housing.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney is calling on Hochul to make more drug offenses eligible for bail as a way to keep dealers of the lethal synthetic opioid behind bars.
Buoyed by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last fall, a number of large states are currently working on ambitious actions designed to address rising global temperatures.
Although Republican victories in New York helped the G.O.P. take control of the House, the state party is torn over how closely to align itself with Trump as it struggles to pick a new chair.
State Attorney General Letitia James is proposing to institute a clear standard for what defines price gouging: any increase over 10 percent during an “abnormal” disruption in the market.
SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. wants the SUNY Polytechnic Institute community to know that he, the SUNY trustees and the governor envision a bright future for the college in Marcy and its students.
Wellsville, NY, a former oil town almost 300 miles from the coast, is emerging as one of the early winners in the push to develop offshore wind in the Atlantic Ocean.
The chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee is pushing for a special fund in the next state budget to ensure revenue the state collects to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions is used for projects to satisfy the Climate Act.
Ownership rates of electric cars have more than doubled in New York City and the surrounding area, propelled by more varied models, more charging stations and lower prices.
$52.6 billion. That’s how much the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers thinks it will take to protect the New York City area from coastal storms.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams brushed aside the suggestion that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s reelection loss was merely a warning sign for Democratic mayors, instead calling it a “warning sign for the country” at large.
“Public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. Same as Chicago, like New York, and many of our big cities across America,” Adams said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
During that same interview, Adams sidestepped around a question about whether he supports the separation of church and state in governing.
Adams sort of appeared to take back his recent controversial comments on religion, saying, “Government should not interfere with religion and religion should not interfere with government.”
Adams is plunking down $1.5 million to spread the word about an expanded tax break available to low income New Yorkers.
Assessment of the mayor’s budget is complicated by how the city is approaching vacant positions, most still in his preliminary budget; the use of surplus revenue and pre-payments from one fiscal year to the next; and ending federal pandemic aid.
The budget battle between Mayor Adams and the City Council is heating up, with the lawmaking body saying the city will have $5.2 billion more tax revenue than the mayor’s office expects.
The Council released its new budget analysis on Friday, before the body’s Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a preliminary budget hearing this morning.
The firm of Homeless Service Administrator Joslyn Carter’s sister has been awarded 17 contracts with the agency valued at a staggering $1.7 billion, according to data compiled by city Comptroller Brad Lander’s office.
New York court workers must be rehired — and given back pay with interest — if they were fired because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the state’s Public Employment Relations Board has ruled.
New York’s former top cop, Ray Kelly, slammed the city for agreeing to pay out $6 million to protesters who were penned in, and some of them beaten or pepper-sprayed, by NYPD officers during a 2020 demonstration in the Bronx.
Unlicensed cannabis retailers are still plying their wares following NYPD shutdown actions. The four nuisance abatement cases the city Law Department filed Feb. 7 are the only ones so far.
The city Department of Education is failing to make the grade on sexual harassment training.
A construction company operator was convicted last week in connection with the death of laborer Luis Sánchez Almonte, who was fatally crushed by 15,000 pounds of debris on a Sunset Park job site in 2018.
A lithium-ion battery from an electric scooter burst into flame inside a Bronx supermarket in Fordham Heights yesterday morning, destroying the building and injuring five firefighters and two civilians, authorities said.
Owls have beguiled humans forever. And it’s easy to see ourselves in a chubby little homebody, Flaco, who ditched his one-room apartment at the Central Park Zoo for the great outdoors.
More than 200 protesters demonstrated in front of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn home yesterday as they called on the US to cut off all military funding to Israel.
One person was killed and two others injured when a small plane crashed in a Long Island neighborhood yesterday, with the aircraft seen bursting into flames on wild doorbell cam video.
The former owner of land in downtown Albany has filed a claim in state Supreme Court demanding an economic arm of the city pay $7.2 million for the land that was seized through eminent domain last October.
Two former Saratoga Springs officials have decided to jump back into the city’s raucous political arena – with one hoping to primary Democratic Mayor Ron Kim and another seeking a term in a Saratoga County seat.
The Adirondack Park Agency should have held a public hearing before an administrative law judge before issuing a permit for herbicide use in Lake George, a state Supreme Court justice ruled Friday.
A cat cafe is coming to Rotterdam.
A Clifton Park GOP chair’s social media post about a before-the-storm salt and sand giveaway for residents is being called reckless and insensitive by a Democratic rival — particularly as it came on the same day a BB gun was brought to a Shenendehowa school.
The former brewmaster for the Druthers chain has gone to court demanding a look at the company’s financial records, questioning if they were engaged in “self-dealing” regarding construction projects and other phases of the operation.
Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger has asked the state comptroller for a forensic audit, following the revelation that ex-county Finance Commissioner Burt Gulnick is under investigation for allegedly stealing from the Hurley Recreation Association.
