The middle of the week has arrived. It’s Wednesday, and I am gearing up to celebrate one of my favorite days of the year.
Actually, in my house, every day is National Peanut Butter Day, because – as you know – I am a big, BIG fan of the nutty spread. But today, others join me in my obsession, and it’s always nice to have company.
I don’t actually know why today is National Peanut Butter Day, and it’s not the only day we recognize the brilliance of what was once (we’ll get back to this) a staple of American lunchboxes. March 1 is National Peanut Butter LOVERS Day, again, for not particular historical reason I can discern. And then National Peanut Day (no butter, just the legume itself) is on September 13.
Peanut allergies spiked in the 1990s and early 2000s, and there are a number of theories as to why this has happened – including that our world is too clean, which results in a weaker immune system. This phenomenon seems to be on the decline, with fewer kids developing peanut allergies, though the numbers are still high.
The result has been a banning of peanuts and peanut products from a variety of pubic spaces – most notably schools, where peanut butter was once a mainstay. I’m not sure how I would have made it through my childhood without peanut butter. And while I like sunflower butter, which is one of the (many) alternatives available these days, it’s just not the same.
(As an aside, when I was googling around looking for a link on peanuts. being banned in schools, I happened upon this article about how the dairy industry in certain parts of Australia initially fought the idea of the word “butter” being used to describe peanut spread, and so it was referred to as peanut “paste” instead, which is vastly less appetizing).
I thought that the U.S. would be the country that consumes the most peanut butter, because, after all, it’s a $2 billion industry. But it turns out that I was wrong. It’s China, with India coming in second and the U.S. a distant third.
Peanut butter – or at least the practice of grinding the legumes into a paste and consuming it – originated centuries ago with the Inca. Here in the U.S., it actually was marketed as a health food by none other than John Harvey Kellogg – the same guy who thought meat consumption fed the sex drive, which he considered sinful.
It wasn’t until the 1920s with the advent of partial hydrogenation that unseparated peanut butter became a thing. Until then, you had to stir the oil into the paste below – something you still have to do if you buy the all-natural variety. If anyone has perfected this art, I wish you would clue me in, because the amount of time I have spent mopping oil off my counters I will never get back.
These days, I’m really enjoying peanut butter on my oatmeal. I sometimes gild the lily and mix the oatmeal with powdered peanut butter and then drizzle it with a little of the real thing for some extra oomph. It’s going to be a good day for warm and peanut butter-infused foods, because there’s a winter weather advisory in effect through 1 p.m. this afternoon.
We’ll be getting a round of light snow, which will transition to a “wintry mix” and then to freezing rain, which will make for slippery driving conditions. The morning’s rain and snow showers will transition to all rain by the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the high 30s.
In the headlines…
Former President Donald Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary, winning over crucial Granite State voters.
The victory made the former president the first non-incumbent to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. No Republican has won both and failed to take the party’s nomination.
Haley has vowed to press on. “New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” she said at an election-night party in Concord. “This race is far from over.”
When asked if he felt Haley would suspend her campaign, Trump said he didn’t know but “she should.”
The defeat of Haley in New Hampshire came eight days after the former president trounced Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida so thoroughly in Iowa that it drove DeSantis from the race.
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden also beat his challengers via a write-in campaign, defeating Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson, after he refused to campaign or appear on the state ballot.
The New Hampshire results indicate that Biden is barreling toward a rematch with Trump in the general election.
Biden has approved a shake-up of the leadership of his campaign, and will dispatch a top White House aide to take over functional control of his re-election effort just as Trump appears to be seizing control of the Republican primary contest to oppose him.
Trump had a problem no matter what happened in New Hampshire last night: There’s a whole swath of the Republican electorate and a good chunk of independents who appear firmly committed to not voting for him in November if he becomes the nominee.
The full federal appeals court in Washington rejected Trump’s bid to lift a gag order imposed on him in the criminal case in which he stands accused of trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
The trial of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Trump has been postponed for another day and will resume tomorrow, a federal court announced.
Accusations that Fulton County DA Fani Willis had an inappropriate relationship with a special prosecutor she hired to seek convictions of Trump and others for interfering in Georgia’s 2020 election have led to renewed calls to remove her from the case.
Turkey’s Parliament voted to allow Sweden to join NATO, putting the Nordic country one step closer to entering the military alliance and easing a diplomatic stalemate that has clouded Turkey’s relations with the US.
Of the 346 members of parliament who voted, 287 were in favor of Sweden’s accession and 55 voted to reject it. Four others abstained from voting.
The vote was the second step of Turkey’s ratification process after the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission approved the bid last month. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can now sign the protocol into law.
The Israeli military suffered the deadliest day of its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip when 24 soldiers were killed, about 20 in an explosion as they prepared to level buildings to help create a buffer zone with the Palestinian enclave, Israeli officials said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US will not support Israel creating so-called “buffer zones” permanently in Gaza that would effectively reduce the size of the Palestinian territory.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will travel to Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar and Turkey to hold “high level talks” with regional leaders to end what he described as a “desperate” situation in Gaza.
The US military conducted airstrikes yesterday on three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, the Pentagon announced.
The American strikes near Iraq’s border with Syria hit headquarters, training locations and storage areas for rockets, missiles and drones belonging to the Kataib Hezbollah militia and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, according to Central Command.
A Boeing 757 plane operated by Delta Air Lines lost a nose wheel as it prepared to take off from Atlanta’s main airport on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It was the latest troubling episode involving one of the manufacturer’s aircraft.
In air traffic control audio included in a report from the FAA, a controller is heard alerting the pilot of the situation, saying, “One of your nose tires just came off; it just rolled off the runway behind you.”
The FAA is investigating. A Delta spokesperson said in a statement that the nose gear tire “came loose from the landing gear,” adding that the company apologizes “to our customers for the inconvenience.”
A union representing Southwest Airlines flight attendants voted to authorize a strike yesterday, after the members rejected a contract deal put forward by the union in December.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Senate have aligned on large swathes of the NY HEAT Act. The Assembly might be ready to move on it, too.
Hochul’s proposed budget includes another attempt at replacing the expired 421-a developer tax break. But she’s left lawmakers, construction unions and developers to hash out what the “Affordable Neighborhoods for New Yorkers” incentive will look like.
Hochul wants to build 15,000 new units on underutilized state-owned property, including State University of New York buildings as one of the options – leading some to wonder what that would look like and how it would work.
In a speech at Mount Van Hoevenberg, Hochul made a significant announcement regarding major funding for the North Country, with a substantial investment earmarked for the Olympic Regional Development Authority.
Hochul visited the Olympic Sports Complex to highlight budget items specific to the North Country, including funding for the Adirondack Rail Trail, housing, climate resiliency, infrastructure, former Olympic venue improvements and more.
New York state will step up funding for beach replenishment and repairs after recent storms caused severe erosion on Long Island’s south shore. Hochul announced $5 million to fund projects in Suffolk County this week.
Thwarted by state lawmakers last year in her quest to speed housing growth with local mandates, Hochul has cast about for state-owned properties where homes could be built as a new tactic to boost the supply and combat the chief affordability problem.
New York workers could see an increase in short-term disability benefits beginning next year for the first time since 1989, under a policy included in Hochul’s executive budget proposal.
New York State cannabis regulators yesterday unveiled the first rules for budding growers to legally plant pot at home.
State Sen. Michelle Hinchey and Assembly Member Patricia Fahy re-introduced legislation this year that would regulate the emissions of indoor cannabis farming operations.
Midwives are asking state lawmakers to loosen the restrictions on their ability to practice in New York, arguing that the profession helps fill critical gaps amid a statewide maternal and infant mortality crisis and should be expanded.
The Adams administration has inked a new emergency $76.69 million contract with the Hotel Association of New York City to provide “last resort” shelter to migrant families.
New York City is required to give a bed to anyone who asks. But as the city reaches a new phase in its homelessness crisis, officials are telling people they have to wait.
City Council members and criminal justice advocates staged what was at times a raucous rally directly in front of Adams’ office to rail against his veto of the How Many Stops Act, a bill that would place new transparency requirements on NYPD officers.
As the Council speaker was about to begin a news conference with faith leaders on a matter upsetting to the mayor, his deputy chief of staff suddenly appeared with an aide wheeling a hand truck to remove the chairs. They also turned out the lights.
Any migrants spotted sleeping outside will be counted as part of the city’s annual street homelessness census this month, according to Adams administration officials.
A police sergeant who threw a cooler at a Bronx man in August, knocking him off a motorbike and killing him, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, assault and criminally negligent homicide.
A 33-year-old man was arrested twice within three days after stalking Taylor Swift outside her Manhattan home, the police said.
Ousted Republican Rep. George Santos said he misses being in Congress — but not so much that he feels compelled to vote in the special election for his replacement.
Santos returned to federal court on Long Island for a brief status conference in his fraud and money laundering case.
Santos, donning Prada footwear, rode the elevator in the courthouse with reporters, and when probed about the upcoming special election to fill his seat, he said, “I don’t vote for Democrats.”
Kevin Monahan was found guilty of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a young woman who was riding in a car that had mistakenly driven up his driveway.
County Judge Adam Michelini allowed jurors to weigh a manslaughter charge against Monahan, but rejected a defense motion to have the jury consider an even lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Russell Sage College is stepping in to offer a replacement for a College at Saint Rose program that once trained more than 1,000 school leaders a year, from assistant principals to superintendents.
Though Greta Gerwig’s colorful comedy skewering the patriarchy, “Barbie”, was the biggest blockbuster of last year and set a record for the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman, Gerwig failed to receive an Oscar nomination for best director.
The snub had many in Hollywood scratching their heads, since Gerwig earned best director nominations from the Golden Globes and Directors Guild of America for “Barbie” and had picked up an Oscar nod for her solo debut, “Lady Bird,” just six years ago.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
