It’s Wednesday. Good morning.
I grew up in a kosher household. We weren’t terribly observant, but my family did keep separate plates and cutlery for dairy and meat and did not mix milk-based products with meat at meals.
(If you want to go deep on the whys and wherefores of the reasons behind this particular culinary rule, click here…a warning: As per usual, it’s up for debate, but also as per usual, Jews aren’t the only people who subscribe to this particular rule).
When my parents divorced, things changed. Both my parents remarried outside the faith, and as a result, neither household is terribly strict – if at all – anymore when it comes to keeping kosher. My mom does still keep separate dishes etc. but I think that’s more out of habit than anything else. (I’ve actually never asked).
I also married out of the faith and don’t keep a kosher house myself. Bacon makes routine appearances at our table (usually in the form of breakfast sandwiches), and my husband is a big fan of cheese on his chicken cutlet subs.
Personally, I try not to eat a lot of meat, but I do love shellfish and also have never been known to turn down an oyster. (Yes, I know I’m putting myself at risk; I don’t have a lot of vices, one has to live a little now and then).
One thing I’ve never really been down for, though, is drinking milk as a beverage. I almost never buy cow’s milk. I will eat cheese and yogurt, but I prefer the sheep or goat version. I will make an exception for hot chocolate – the real kind that’s made with milk – usually from a cow, unless I’m making it at home, not water.
For some reason, adding chocolate to almost anything makes it more palatable. I do draw the line at chocolate covered insects, but generally speaking anything + chocolate = something I will consume. Exhibit A: Chocolate milk.
Mind you, I wouldn’t say that chocolate milk is a top beverage choice. I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink it. But if it was offered, and it’s increasingly available at the end of triathlons and running races – apparently, it has scientifically proven recovery benefits for endurance athletes – I would probably say yes. (Unless there was seltzer, my first love, on hand).
Legend has it that chocolate milk has its roots in Jamaica, where an Irish botanist named Sir Hans Sloane reportedly sought to make the bitter local cocoa-based drink more to his liking by mixing it with milk. He took this concoction back to Europe with him, where he marketed it as having medicinal properties.
Hershey’s first patented a recipe for chocolate milk in 1903. The company started commercially producing chocolate syrup, which I would argue makes a superior glass of chocolate milk, though it does take more mixing, in 1926. The powdered version is admittedly easier to incorporate into a beverage, and that came along compliments of Nestle’s in the late 1940s.
According to the National Dairy Council, Americans consume more than 1.5 billion gallons of chocolate milk annually – about four gallons per person. Somewhere, someone is drinking a LOT more than their fair share, because I certainly am coming nowhere near close to pulling my weight there.
That number might come down considerably in the near future, thanks to new rules on chocolate milk in schools under consideration by the USDA in an effort to curb the rise in childhood obesity.
It’s National Chocolate Milk Day. Better get your drink on while you can, kids.
Also, as an aside, happy 25th birthday to Google, which is celebrating in a very Google way – with a dedicated doodle.
Another partly cloudy day is on tap with temperatures in the low 70s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden made history yesterday when he visited a picket line in Michigan in a show of loyalty to autoworkers who are striking for higher wages and cost-of-living increases.
“The UAW – you saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before. You made a lot of sacrifices, gave up a lot. The companies were in trouble,” Biden said. “Now they are doing incredibly well and guess what? You should be doing incredibly well too.”
While US lawmakers – and presidential candidates – frequently appear at strikes to express solidarity with American workers, it is considered unprecedented for a sitting president to do so.
The president’s trip came a day before former President Donald Trump was scheduled to arrive in Michigan, as the two offer dueling messages in a key swing state.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined striking United Auto Workers (UAW) members on the picket line yesterday in Tappan, NY.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) will officially lift its strike today, allowing Hollywood’s writers to return to work after a nearly five-month halt on most TV and film productions.
Biden and his campaign are working on a critical project for his re-election bid: Make sure he doesn’t trip.
Biden, 80, slipped and nearly tumbled down a 14-step staircase while exiting Air Force One yesterday — just hours after it was revealed that the commander in chief is working with a physical therapist and using shorter stairs to avoid further trip-ups.
Senate Republicans and Democrats reached agreement on a stopgap spending plan that would head off a government shutdown on Sunday while providing billions in disaster relief and aid to Ukraine, but the measure faced resistance in the GOP-led House.
If Congress is unable to pass funding legislation, the closure of agencies could occur starting Oct. 1, just when the Biden administration planned to switch on student loan payments for around 40 million Americans.
Bob Menendez’s fellow New Jersey senator, Cory Booker, said that the 69-year-old should resign after the unveiling of bribery charges against him and his wife.
The New Jersey Democrat’s indictment last week initially prompted only a handful of calls from within his party for his exit. But yesterday, the dam broke, particularly among colleagues facing re-election next year.
Wael Hana, who is accused of bribing the senior senator from New Jersey, pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan courtroom.
Biden’s younger dog, Commander, bit another US Secret Service agent at the White House Monday evening – the 11th known biting incident involving the 2-year-old German Shepherd.
Commander, a purebred German shepherd, bit the Secret Service officer around 8 p.m. on Monday. The officer was treated by medical personnel and said she is OK, according to a Secret Service spokesperson.
Hunter Biden sued Rudy Giuliani, claiming he hacked his so-called “laptop from hell” and disseminating embarrassing personal information including nude photos and purported emails about shady business deals.
“Defendants are among those who have been primarily responsible for what has been described as the ‘total annihilation’ of Plaintiff’s digital privacy,” Biden’s suit in Los Angeles federal court says.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed a bank for Hunter Biden’s records and obtained two wire transfers from Chinese nationals to him in 2019 that listed President Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home as the beneficiary address.
Trump was found liable for fraud in the New York attorney general’s sweeping case against his family real estate empire – a major setback for the former president.
In a 35-page order, State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron partially granted state AG Letitia James’ request to rule on her top fraud claim in the $250 million lawsuit.
According to the ruling, which allows the civil trial to begin next week, Trump lied to banks and insurers by both overvaluing and undervaluing his assets when it was to his benefit, and also exaggerated his net worth to the tune of billions of dollars.
New York businesses are launching a $1 million campaign to push Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to ease anti-pollution laws battling climate change — arguing the regs are too costly to them and consumers.
Hochul said the upcoming year’s state budget will likely include a “substantial” amount of funding for managing the influx of new migrants into the state, a crisis for which New York already has committed more than $1.7 billion in state funding.
Hochul called out Republicans in Washington as they hold up a stopgap spending agreement to avert a national shutdown she’s concerned might further delay working permits for Venezuelan migrants.
The state Department of State has suspended business licenses for two security companies that were hired by DocGo to oversee activities at upstate hotels that have been transformed into migrant shelters under the company’s contract with New York City.
A Staten Island judge ordered the city to stop using the site of a former Catholic school as a 300-person migrant shelter — while blasting the Big Apple’s “Right to Shelter” law as a “relic from the past.”
City Hall quickly staked out plans to appeal the ruling and affirmed it won’t vacate the site in the meantime.
County leaders outside New York City are pushing back against Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to expand allowing city-funded housing vouchers for homeless New Yorkers to be used outside the five boroughs.
City attorneys formally asked a judge in Lower Manhattan “to modify the consent decree” that for decades has required them to provide a bed to anyone who asks for one.
In a surprise announcement, a Manhattan state Supreme Court judge has recused herself from the case that will decide the fate of New York City’s right-to-shelter mandate that the city has sought relief from during an influx of migrants.
As part of an ambitious housing package, Adams is proposing rules that allow for new single-room occupancy (SRO) housing, a type of dorm-style apartment complex where tenants have their own private studios but typically share kitchens and bathrooms.
Adams presented citations this week to the first responders who helped save a woman’s life after a shark attack in Queens last month.
The city’s Health Department is recommending that all New Yorkers start carrying naloxone, the overdose-reversing medication, and learn how to use it as the Big Apple’s opioid crisis causes a record number of deaths.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio was spotted getting intimate with an unidentified woman (not his estranged wife) at a rooftop Manhattan bar.
The fugitive husband of the Bronx day care owner charged in the fentanyl-poisoning death of a toddler was reportedly hunted down in Mexico.
The NYPD said the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals were involved in the arrest of Grei Mendez’s husband, whose name has not yet been released. Police did not confirm his name because charges have not yet been filed.
Target announced it will be closing nine stores across four states in October – including one in Harlem – because of theft and crime.
The big-box retailer — which opened the East Harlem location to great fanfare in 2010 as a revitalization of the neighborhood — announced it will close all nine stores on Oct. 21.
New York Public Radio, the parent organization of the WNYC news station, said it was planning to cut its work force by about 12 percent.
There were 45 recorded earthquakes in New York since the start of 2022, but they were all small enough to go unnoticed.
The Empire State Building will light up in the four Hogwarts house colors today to mark the 25th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book published in the U.S.
Starting Oct. 4, New York will begin accepting applications for new cultivators, retailers, processors and microbusiness licenses that will allow the sale of cannabis from a farm stand or small retail venue. OCM said it expects to issue close to 1,500 new licenses.
Could financial incentives for housing granted through Industrial Development Agencies help with the housing affordability crisis?
J. Rafferty’s Bar & Grill, a Latham spot known for attracting a 30s-and-older suburban crowd with bands, DJs and karaoke for more than 20 years, is due to close soon as retirement beckons its ownership.
GlobalFoundries has been fined more than $22,000 by federal workplace safety regulators for a March incident in which an employee was shocked by electricity on the job and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance with burns.
GE Vernova’s research lab in Niskayuna was awarded $22.9 million for four different research projects that advance offshore wind technologies.
A 62-year-old Albany man who allegedly posted salacious photos and videos of women and girls running through the city on Instagram was arrested on a stalking charge.
After Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin’s son Sean was sent home this past summer as the 6th-remaining contestant on the ABC reality dating series “The Bachelorette,” he’s getting a second chance at love and more screen time in front of millions.
