Good Wednesday morning.
Lots of holiday-themed posts this week – just like I promised. A friendly reminder: Tomorrow is the first night of Chanukah.
Don’t blame me if the (already laughably small) displays at area big box stores of menorah candles, gold-wrapped chocolate gelt, dreidels, and other assorted tchotchkes are picked clean.
I’ve been warning you for at least a week – or more – to get out there while the getting was good. If you didn’t heed my warnings, you have no one to blame but yourself.
As mentioned yesterday, today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas, also known as Saint Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children, and he was the inspiration for the mythical character Sinterklass, who eventually evolved into the modern-day Santa Claus.
The historical saint, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is one of the most popular saints in the Eastern and Western churches. I have to admit I have never heard of an unpopular saint, because isn’t the very definition of sainthood that one is a pretty great individual?
He is usually depicted as an older gent with white hair and a long, white beard. He usually wears a red cape and sometimes a red stole over a white bishop’s robe and carries a long ceremonial shepherd’s staff with a fancy curled top.
This all sounds familiar, right? With the exception of the staff – I imagine it would get in the way of chimney hopping and sleigh driving, so it’s understandable that this particular detail got lost in the shuffle over time.
Saint Nicholas, too, is the bringer of good things, though he rides a white horse, legend has it, and does not get pulled around by flying reindeer. Tonight, Dutch children leave their wooden shoes out (near the fireplace, preferably) for St. Nicholas to fill with gifts, and not to forget to leave a treat – usually in the form of a carrot or some hay – for the horse to snack one.
Adults don’t bother with the shoe thing, but just exchange gifts directly.
It was Dutch settlers, for the record, who brought their tradition of celebrating the Feast of Saint Nicholas with them when they relocated to New Amsterdam in the American colonies, starting around the 17th century. It’s easy to see how “Sinterklaas” became “Santa Claus” to the English speakers with whom the Dutch shared the New World.
This might be a good time to remind you of the “who invented Santa Claus” debate.
The modern-day image of an old man with a big belly, white beard, red suit and black belt is generally attributed to the cartoonist Thomas Nast, who drew for Harper’s Weekly, which, in turn, was based on the description of the jolly old elf in “A Visit From Saint Nicholas” AKA “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
The Coca-Cola company also played a big role in further defining and popularizing this version of Santa.
“A Visit from Saint Nicholas”, by the way, has upstate roots – it first appeared in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was published anonymously. It may or may not have been penned by Clement Clarke Moore. More on that here and here. (This debate plays a role, traditionally, in Troy’s Victorian Stroll, which I skipped this year because of the rain. Bummer).
Speaking of the weather, it will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-30s.
In the headlines…
House-to-house gun battles were raging around the southern city of Khan Younis, as Israeli forces and Hamas fighters clashed on yesterday in some of the heaviest fighting of the two-month-old war, Israeli commanders said.
The U.S. agency responsible for distributing international aid pledged an additional $21 million to help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continued spiraling toward a public health disaster.
President Joe Biden warned that the world must not turn a blind eye to reports that women and young girls have been subjected to horrific sexual abuse by Hamas militants.
The president decried sexual assaults committed by Hamas during its October 7 terror attack on Israel and called on “all of us” to condemn the acts.
Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and M.I.T. were hammered by Republican House members who claimed that the universities themselves had sown seeds of bias on campus against Jews.
Biden said that his re-election campaign was prompted in part by Donald Trump’s decision to run for president again and an effort to block his predecessor from reclaiming the White House.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said at a campaign event in Boston, adding that he “cannot let him win.” Asked by a reporter if he would drop out of the race if Trump does, Biden replied: “No, not now.”
The president used a trio of fundraisers to caution against what might happen should his predecessor again claim control of the White House, noting Trump has described himself as his supporters’ “retribution” and vowed to root out “vermin” in the country.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Tremont Street in Boston last night, outside of a fundraising event for Biden’s reelection campaign.
The House will hold a formal vote to authorize the ongoing Republican-led impeachment inquiry into Biden, Speaker Mike Johnson announced.
Johnson said Republicans have “no choice” but to push ahead as the White House has rebuffed their requests for information.
Biden’s urgent push to replenish Ukraine’s war chest and send aid to Israel is on the brink of collapse in the Senate, where Republicans are prepared today to block the funding unless Democrats agree to add strict measures to clamp down on migration.
A classified briefing for senators on the White House’s request for aid for Israel and Ukraine became “heated” yesterday, with Republican members storming out of the meeting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called off a high-profile briefing with US lawmakers amid an impasse over future funding for his country.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville lifted his blockade of nearly all the military promotions he had delayed for almost a year in protest of a Pentagon policy ensuring abortion access for service members, saying he would continue to hold up only the most senior generals.
Tuberville told reporters he would release all holds except for four-star generals after a nine-month long protest that angered several of his colleagues, including Republicans who feared the stalled promotions would impact military readiness.
The Senate confirmed hundreds of top military nominations by voice vote yesterday evening, hours after Tuberville announced his decision.
Biden’s re-election campaign is expanding its war room operation this week to include back-to-back rapid responses to both Trump’s town hall with Fox News last night and the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses this evening.
During the town hall, Trump mocked questions about authoritarianism, saying he would be a dictator only on “day one,” and then he’s going to close the border and get to drilling.
Pressed by Sean Hannity to promise not to abuse power, Trump agreed he wouldn’t, “other than Day 1,” adding: “We’re closing the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
Trump was pressed on whether he would disavow taking retributive action against all his enemies if he reentered the Oval Office. He initially shied away from responding.
Kash Patel, a confidant of the former president who is likely to serve in a senior national security role in any new Trump administration, threatened to target journalists for prosecution if the former president regains the White House.
Special counsel Jack Smith plans to use Trump’s own words against him in the upcoming federal election interference trial to show he engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the US and illegally overturn the 2020 election results, according to a new court filing.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the special election to fill former Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos’s seat will be held Feb. 13.
Hochul issued a proclamation yesterday setting the date for the race that will determine who will represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District for the remainder of the term.
Hochul had been toying with blocking former Rep. Tom Suozzi’s nomination for the crucial special election to replace Santos. But he agreed to her multiple demands and apologized for aggressive personal tactics he deployed against her in the 2022 primary.
His assurances made room for a crucial détente between the two Democrats that has cleared the way for party leaders to formally announce Suozzi as their candidate as soon as today.
“Following a meeting in Albany, where Tom made critical assurances about fighting for abortion rights and running a winning campaign that benefits all Democrats, the governor will allow his nomination to move forward,” a Hochul spokesman said.
Hochul is taking heat for dragging her feet on a bill that would make governmental bodies post the details of emergency contracts online within 30 days of approval, supporters charge.
The Legislature passed hundreds of bills before breaking in June. Many high-profile ones like eliminating even-year elections and a bill to create a reparations task force have yet to be signed.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos is taking heat for urging fellow lawmakers to sign a statement backing the union representing Legal Aid lawyers’ right to consider and pass a pro-Palestinian resolution condemning Israel that critics have slammed as antisemitic.
After over three decades in the state legislature, Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, a Queens Democrat, is calling it quits — opening the door for a potential return to state politics for ex-con state Senator Hiram Monserrate.
Five convicted murderers and a parolee are suing state prison officials for violating their constitutional rights following the 2015 escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than two percent of New York City tax filers fled the state, according to figures reviewed by the state comptroller.
Housing advocates rallied outside the Capitol yesterday, calling on Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams to protect New Yorkers’ “right to shelter.”
New York congressional Republicans railed against the state and New York City’s response to the migrant crisis during a hearing in Washington, D.C., intended to assess how southern border policies are influencing the ability of communities to respond.
City Hall officials said that efforts to house asylum seekers would be slowed by Comptroller Brad Lander’s decision to restrict Adams’ ability to ink emergency contracts.
The governor, the head of the MTA and the city’s leading transit thinkers all celebrated congestion pricing yesterday as an historic moment, while Adams spent the day failing to live up to it.
The MTA board is set to vote on the toll structure for congestion pricing today, and now Adams is ready to pump the brakes.
The head of the MTA blasted New Jersey critics of the Big Apple’s congestion pricing plan, as he joined Hochul to defend the new tolls for cars in Manhattan.
“From time to time, leaders are called upon to envision a better future, be bold in the implementation and execution, and be undaunted by the opposition,” Hochul said at a Union Square rally of congestion pricing advocates and MTA brass.
Adams and his top deputies doubled down on denying city officials used a list of prioritized projects to help well-connected developers bypass a deep backlog of fire safety inspections, despite documents and emails reported by Gothamist.
The next commissioner of the city’s Department of Corrections may soon be named as a possible federal takeover of the embattled Rikers Island jail system looms, according to sources.
Adams is set to travel back to the nation’s capital tomorrow to discuss the migrant crisis, a month after he abruptly canceled his meeting with White House officials the same day the FBI raided his campaign fundraiser’s Brooklyn home.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo is getting much more support than Adams in a hypothetical head-to-head Democratic primary race for City Hall in 2025, a stunning new poll released yesterday claims.
A former correctional facility in Harlem is going to be redeveloped for affordable housing.
A report found that New York is gaining millionaires, despite an earlier exodus, while lower-income families are being forced to leave, raising questions about the state’s tax policies.
The small theaters that help make the city a theater capital are cutting back as they struggle to recover from the pandemic.
Victoria Gotti, daughter of the notorious mobster John Gotti, has put nine of her New York City properties up for sale.
A Queens man was indicted on hate crime charges for allegedly stalking, harassing and punching an Israeli tourist in Times Square while ranting that “Hamas should kill more [Jews],” Manhattan prosecutors said.
The charges were among the latest to arise from a spate of bias incidents in New York amid the war between Hamas and Israel.
A Lamborghini erupted into a ball of flames when the driver, who was fleeing from cops, crashed in upper Manhattan — leaving his 21-year-old passenger dead, police said.
Amid a decade-long slump in college enrollment, Capital Region schools are wasting no time recruiting students from the College of Saint Rose, which announced last week that the spring 2024 semester will be its last.
The Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has been awarded $625,000 in state funding to launch its new business incubator program.
The Albany County Legislature unanimously approved a 2024 budget this week, including passing an immediate 12 percent salary increase for themselves and three of the county’s top leaders.
Fights between Albany High School students led the school to hold all students in their classrooms yesterday afternoon and dismiss school half an hour early.
The landlord who was ordered by the state Attorney General to stop harassing tenants in his Saratoga Lake mobile home park is trying to evict a resident by allegedly refusing to cash her rent payments.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
