The sprint to Friday is over. Somehow, I feel like we were just here. Such is the weird time warp of a three-day holiday week.
The internet offers up a lot of interesting fodder, though so much of it is just impossible to fact check in any substantive way.
I am loathe to even try to calculate the amount of time I wasted traveling down various rabbit holes in a vain attempt to track a claim to its source, though the journey did take me – in some cases – to some pretty interesting places I wouldn’t otherwise have visited. So maybe it wasn’t all bad?
Here’s a prime example – the internet tells me that today is World Chocolate Day (AKA International Chocolate Day, or, if you’re a purist, just simply Chocolate Day). because July 7 is the anniversary of when chocolate was formally introduced to Europe.
Any number of websites cite this important occurrence, which reportedly occurred in 1550, though maybe it was actually 1504 (courtesy of Christopher Columbus) or 1528 (Hernan Cortes). In other words, it’s completely unclear.
What we DO know, however, is that Europeans were seriously late to the chocolate party. Archaeologists have found evidence of the cultivation of cacao, which is native to Native to Mexico, Central and South America, dating back to at least 1250 B.C.
The Mayans, most notably, cultivated cacao trees used the seeds to brew frothy drinks that were used in religious ceremonies and also (maybe) in barter. Cacao seeds were also used as money by both the Mayans and the Aztecs.
The Aztecs also concocted and consumed xocoatl (which means bitter water, but also is the basis for our word “chocolate”), which was rich but not sweetened, usually made with water cacao beans, cornmeal and chili. This drink was typically served cold, and made frothy by pouring it from one container to another.
Chocolate, though perhaps not quite as popular as vanilla, gets more than its fair share of recognition. Aside from today’s celebration, there’s National Chocolate Day (Oct. 28 in the U.S.);
In Ghana, which is the world’s the second largest producer of cocoa, accounting for 15 percent of global production, they celebrate Chocolate Day on Feb. 14 (AKA Valentine’s Day, for which, BTW, Americans purchase approximately 58 million pounds of chocolate – including 36 million heart-shaped boxes – annually to celebrate). In Latvia, World Chocolate Day is celebrated on July 11.
To further confuse things, the U.S. National Confectioners Association, which exists to “protect and promote” the confectionary industry, seems to think Sept. 13 is International Chocolate Day, because it coincides with the birthday of American confectioner and Hersey Chocolate Company founder Milton S. Hershey (born on that date in 1857).
Personally, I think there’s never enough chocolate – or recognition of how great chocolate is – and so I say bring on ALL the flavorful festivities. And if your weekend plans call for S’mores, so much the better. You might, however, be sure there’s a tent or tarp or umbrella or slicker nearby, because there is – yet again – rain in the forecast.
Today, we’ll have partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the high 80s and showers and/or thunderstorms in the afternoon. Saturday will be mostly cloudy, again with highs in the high 80s and again with a chance of showers. Sunday brings more of the same, though with slightly cooler temperatures (in the low 80s) and thunderstorms in the morning.
In the headlines…
The past three days were quite likely the hottest in Earth’s modern history, scientists said, as an astonishing surge of heat across the globe continued to shatter temperature records from North America to Antarctica.
The Biden administration today is expected to propose a new regulation cracking down on short-term health insurance plans, five Democrats with knowledge of the matter.
For more than six months, Biden and his aides have been wrestling with one of the most vexing questions in the Ukraine war: whether to risk letting Ukrainian forces run out of the artillery rounds they need to fight Russia, or ship them cluster munitions.
The Biden administration will announce a new weapons package for Ukraine on Friday that will include controversial cluster munitions Kyiv has long asked for, two U.S. officials said.
The president said he plans to attend the groundbreaking of a solar facility in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home state of Georgia that he credits to his Bidenomics agenda.
“Since I took office, we’ve seen over 60 domestic manufacturing announcements all across the solar supply chain. One of the biggest is in Dalton, Georgia,” Biden said in South Carolina. “You may find it hard to believe, but that’s (Greene’s) district.”
“How can you have the best economy in the world and not have the best infrastructure in the world?” Biden said. He added that under his predecessor, infrastructure week became a “punchline.”
Taylor Greene has been kicked out of the biggest conservative club in Congress over her nasty feud with fellow MAGA stalwart Rep. Lauren Boebert.
The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling denying a conservative watchdog group and media outlet access to a trove of documents from Biden’s time in the Senate.
Former President Donald Trump’s longtime body man Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty after he finally hired a lawyer for his arraignment in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. His hearing took barely two minutes.
Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he believes Trump kept classified documents after leaving the White House because “he wants to pretend he’s still president.”
Ron DeSantis is doubling down on a controversial campaign ad that attacked Trump for being too accepting of LGBTQ rights — a message some have slammed as openly homophobic.
The Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, and Medicare said it would cover much of its high cost.
The F.D.A.’s decision marks the first time in two decades that a drug for Alzheimer’s has received full approval, meaning that the agency concluded there is solid evidence of potential benefit.
More than a half billion dollars will go to 141 communities in New York in order to shore up and replace bridges and culverts around the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul this week announced.
New York’s pension fund posted a -4.14% rate of return during the state’s fiscal year, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office said.
In an effort to widen the pool of candidates seeking to become troopers the State Police will raise the maximum age to join their agency from 29 to 34 and continue efforts to find more women and minority applicants.
The federal government is on track to give $6.88 billion, the most ever awarded to a mass-transit project, for the construction of a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River to New York City, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The $6.9 billion grant – the largest ever issued by the U.S. – will cover nearly half of the Gateway Project’s expected $16-17 billion dollar price tag, making it one of the most expensive public works projects in U.S. history.
Mayor Eric Adams has often talked about a wrinkled photo of a fallen police officer that he kept in his wallet. Now that photo and the story have been called into question.
Adams laced into The New York Times over the story suggesting he lied about carrying a photo of a friend and NYPD officer who was killed in the line of duty more than three decades ago.
Three of the fallen officer’s family members stepped forward to defend Adams.
A majority of the advisers on New York City’s first-ever Jewish Advisory Council that was announced recently by Adams are Orthodox and only a quarter are women, drawing criticism from Jewish leaders including Rep. Jerrold Nadler.
Adams announced new leadership for the New York City Housing Authority at a moment when the nation’s biggest public housing authority is facing a near-existential crisis.
There’s something eating at Adams. His name is Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller.
A package of bills approved by the City Council and vetoed by Adams could save the city more than $730 million annually on housing and social services costs, according to a report released by a homeless services provider.
Shootings in New York City dropped by about 25 percent through the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, extending a downward trend after a spike in violent crime during the pandemic.
A digital press aide for the City Council is under fire from the head of the New York City police officers union after it was revealed that she advocated violence against officers.
Marriage can take a beating when you’re mayor of New York because of the “power imbalance” and “resentment,” experts say amid news that Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray are dating other people.
Legal recreational weed is finally budding in the Bronx — along with hope that soon-to-sprout jobs and tax revenue aren’t just a pipe dream. Statis Cannabis Co., is the seventh legal dispensary to open in New York City.
Behind the stone lions on Fifth Avenue, the New York Public Library’s imposing Fifth Avenue branch has added a new visitor center and an expanded gift shop and cafe.
Uber Technologies, DoorDash and other app-based food delivery companies filed lawsuits seeking to strike down New York City’s novel law setting a minimum wage for delivery workers.
An on-duty city Department of Environmental Protection employee was killed when a Mercedes driver rammed into a department truck in Queens early yesterday.
Officials on Long Island have stepped up shark patrols after authorities responded to several reports of people being bitten by sharks in separate locations around the July 4 holiday.
Albany City Firefighter Sam Fresina, the president of the 18,000-member New York State Professional Fire Fighters Association, was re-elected to a fourth term, the labor group announced.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland traveled to New York’s Capital Region to highlight the progress made on offshore wind projects.
After losing last week’s Democratic primary election to incumbent Gary McCarthy, Schenectady mayoral hopeful Marion Porterfield has come up short in her bid to run for the post on the Working Families Party Line for November’s general election.
The FuzeHub manufacturing collaborative is among 34 semi-finalists for a National Science Foundation grant that could provide up to $160 million over 10 years to focus on development of environmentally clean and sustainable manufacturing techniques.
Two hours after pressing the launch button on Wednesday on Threads, Instagram’s new app for real-time, public conversations, Mark Zuckerberg posted that more than two million people had downloaded his latest creation. That was just the beginning.
OceanGate Expeditions said it had “suspended all exploration and commercial operations” after its Titan submersible presumably imploded during a dive to explore the wreckage of the Titanic last month, killing the company’s founder and four other people.
The singer Britney Spears asked for an apology after accusing a member of a star N.B.A. player’s security detail of striking her in the face outside a Las Vegas restaurant when she tried to greet the player, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs.
