Good Tuesday morning.
I kind of feel like I gave Passover short shrift yesterday by making it share a post instead of having one all its own. So, I’ll start out today’s post with another half loaf (matzoh?) and try to make good on the oversight.
Actually, today is all about weird juxtapositions. For example, it’s Passover, which means those who are observing are eschewing all things made with leaven.
Foods that are not kosher for this holiday are considered “chametz”, which is basically anything made with grain (wheat, oats, rye, barley, spelt, etc.) that has had contact with any source of moisture for for longer than 18 minutes, (yes, I know, very arbitrary, if you want to go deep on that, click here), leading to rising or “leavening.” Leavening agents like yeast and sourdough are also a no-no for this holiday.
This all has to do with the rush the Jews were in when they escaped from slavery and fled into the desert. They didn’t have time to wait for the dough of their bread to rise, so they made matzoh (or matzah, if you prefer) instead. Remembering the time when we, the people of Israel, were enslaved, we eat unleavened bread for the duration of Passover.
FWIW, since it takes 18 minutes for dough to turn into chametz, according to the Talmudic sages, it must take no longer than 18 minutes – from mixing and rolling to baking – to make a K for P (my shorthand for “kosher for Passover”) matzah.
So, OK, Jews aren’t eating anything leavened, and if they’re really observant, they’ve not only removed all leavened products from their home and “sold” them to a non-Jew for safekeeping during Passover, but they’ve also gone through their home with a feather, used it to sweep up every last crumb into a spoon, and then burned the whole lot.
It seems unfair, then, that today is National English Muffin Day. Maybe you are not tempted by a well-toasted English muffin, replete with nooks and crannies to hold all manner of melted goodness – like peanut butter, preferably, which just doesn’t spread so easily on matzah, though if you can manage to get the concoction to hold together, it isn’t at all bad, taste-wise.
Another strange confluence: Today is both National Email Day AND World Book Day. I am a big fan of the latter, and not so much of a fan of the former, though I recognize its importance in modern-day communications. Some days, though, I really just want to throw the computer out the window.
The following did send me down a rabbit hole, though, I’ll admit: “The date chosen is in honor of the birthday of Ray Tomlinson, an American computer scientist who rolled out the earliest successful email program in 1971.”
It turns out that we have Tomlinson to thank the fact that we use the “@” sign in emails to connect the username with the destination address. In other words, he’s the granddaddy of network electronic mail. I feel some kind of way about this, and it’s not all good. Maybe what I really need is a bath and a good (dead tree) book.
Today will be even better than yesterday, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-60s. FINALLY. And then, rain. But maybe it’ll blow over. We’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes.
In the headlines….
President Joe Biden marked Earth Day with $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities, while criticizing Republicans who want to gut his climate change policies.
Biden shared the stage on Earth Day with three liberal lawmakers who praised his climate agenda: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Morehouse College is set to announce that Biden will deliver its commencement address on May 19, but some faculty members have raised concerns about the decision, according to two people familiar with the matter and an email to faculty members.
The ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, May 19 on the college’s campus, and the announcement comes as Biden and former President Donald Trump battle to get votes from Black voters in Georgia.
Biden broke out his “Dark Brandon” alter ego as he fired off a quick joke at the expense of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who has been one of his biggest critics in Congress.
Trump schemed to defraud the 2016 electorate and covered up the plot by lying “over and over and over again” once he won the White House, prosecutors charged yesterday during opening statements at the former president’s hush money trial.
Trump’s lawyers cut a deal with state prosecutors to secure his hefty $175 million civil fraud bond as he appeals the ruling in the case — even as his criminal trial got underway down the street.
Manhattan prosecutors are poised to push their case against Trump into a critical new phase today, as they prepare to question a key witness and urge the judge to hold the former president in contempt for attacking witnesses and jurors in the landmark trial.
With support from demonstrators in Lower Manhattan spotty so far, Trump issued a call to “rally behind MAGA,” and suggested the poor turnout was a result of a plot against his supporters.
The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president has prompted another historic first: The state court system will publish daily transcripts of the proceedings in the matter of The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.
Trump’s valet Walt Nauta was told that if he was charged with lying to the FBI, the former president would pardon him when he won a second term in 2024, according to notes from an interview with a witness in the federal classified documents investigation.
A Trump associate told the FBI of advising the former president to return documents the National Archives was seeking nearly a year before agents searched his Mar-a-Lago home, according to newly unsealed filings.
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday debated whether laws against homeless people for sleeping outside violate their Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of courts wading into the thorny policy questions around when local governments can punish people for sleeping and camping outdoors.
Baltimore sued the owner and operator of the container ship that decimated the iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six construction workers.
The mayor and city council filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Maryland to seek unspecified damages from Grace Ocean Pte Ltd., the Singaporean owner, and manager Synergy Marine Group. They want the owners held fully liable via a jury trial.
Vice President Kamala Harris, campaigning in Wisconsin, again took sharp swipes at Trump for his actions on abortion. But she stayed silent on the war in Gaza, another issue erupting among the critical bloc of young voters she has been courting.
Biden called on Americans to speak out against the “alarming surge of antisemitism” in the U.S. following pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University that prompted the school to cancel all in-person classes Monday out of safety concerns.
But in condemning the actions of demonstrators who he deemed “antisemitic,” Biden also chastised those who didn’t empathize with the suffering of those in Gaza.
Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley called on President Joe Biden to send the National Guard to Columbia University as pro-Palestinian demonstrations that saw over 100 people arrested last week roil the campus.
Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Jerrold Nadler, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine posted statements on X about the situation at Columbia.
New York University students are jumping on the anti-Israel tent camp bandwagon. The downtown Manhattan university became the latest pricey college to see students set up encampments on campus as they protest Israel and the war in the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of protesters were arrested at NYU last night as tensions over the Israel-Hamas war continued to simmer on U.S. campuses.
Pro-Palestinian protesters, many of whom are Jewish, prepared Seder dinners at college protest encampments, even as other Jewish students sought community in more traditional settings.
NYU had warned protestors that if they did not clear the plaza by 4 p.m., the university would invite the police onto campus.
Dozens were arrested yesterday at N.Y.U. and also at Yale, but officials there and at campuses across the country are running out of options to corral protests that are expected to last the rest of the school year.
A Columbia University professor who has been a vocal critic of the administration’s response to the ongoing anti-Israel student protests was barred from campus after he tried to lead a pro-Jewish rally at the Ivy League college.
The New York state Republican congressional delegation has unanimously called for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign or be fired over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
The university senate is expected to vote, possibly as early as tomorrow, on a resolution censuring Dr. Shafik, a reaction to her testimony before Congress and the arrests of more than 100 student protesters.
New England Patriots team owner Robert Kraft announced that he was pulling his support from Columbia University over the ongoing anti-Israel protest at the Manhattan campus.
Kraft, a major donor to Columbia, for whom the school’s Hillel Center for Jewish Life is named, said he is “no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff.”
“People need to find their humanity,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a video posted to social media after visiting Columbia, condemning the acts of antisemitism on the campus while reaffirming her support for free expression.
On the heels of a state budget that was nearly three weeks late, Hochul has hit new polling lows as a plurality of New Yorkers gave her poor marks for her job performance.
According to a new Siena College poll, 49% of respondents said Hochul’s job performance as governor has been lacking, compared to 45% who said she’s been doing a good job – her lowest rating since taking office.
The poll found that independents, who are a growing part of the electorate, dislike the governor by a two-to-one margin.
Hochul signed a portion of the state budget that will change the way tenants are defined in state law. Lawmakers say it will make it easier for police to intervene in squatting cases instead of having to take them to housing court.
Hochul signed off on a portion of the state budget that includes Sammy’s Law, which allows New York City to lower its speed limit to 20 mph from 25 mph.
A new initiative announced by Hochul and lawmakers would allow New York City and local municipalities across the State to shutter and padlock the raft of illegal cannabis stores that have been mushrooming across the region.
A payroll tax credit for local news outlets was included in New York’s final budget passed Saturday in an effort to keep publications operating.
The Adams administration faltered in its response to the September rainstorm that dumped nearly 9 inches of water on parts of the city, raising preparedness questions for future extreme-weather events, according to an investigation by the city comptroller.
City Comptroller Brad Lander is urging Mayor Eric Adams’ administration to beef up the Big Apple’s storm preparedness as his office released a new report finding “big gaps” in the city’s response to Tropical Storm Ophelia last fall.
The 44-page investigation noted that 63 percent of the Department of Environmental Protection’s 51 specialized catch-basin cleaning trucks — a key part of the city’s arsenal to prevent floods — were out of service when the storm hit.
Adams’ office has confirmed that City Hall chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack is the administration’s extreme weather coordinator — ending months of mystery over who’s running the top storm response post.
In the first three months of this year, Adams’ legal defense trust received $22,462 in prohibited donations from a corporate entity and 10 individuals with city government business interests, according to a Daily News review of finance disclosures.
Adams retained control of the city’s school system for another two years, as part of a finalized budget deal between state lawmakers and Hochul.
It’s official — President Joe Biden will be visiting Syracuse this Thursday following the news that Micron will receive a $6.1 billion grant under the CHIPS & Science Act.
The state AG’s office is warning the leaders of a Sullivan County town that zoning regulations they adopted last year for “places of worship” may be discriminatory because they appear designed to block a development project proposed by Hasidic Orthodox Jews.
Mayor Carmella Mantello says she wants proposals for a possible location for a new city hall in Troy, potentially ending the 13-year nomadic existence of the government.
A recent TU analysis found that Schenectady has the highest rate of chronically absent students in the Capital Region. But about 20 percent of them, according to the district, had an unusual reason in 2022-23: They weren’t up to date on their vaccinations.
Alec Baldwin was caught on camera smacking the phone of an anti-Israel agitator who repeatedly demanded he say “Free Palestine” inside a New York City coffee shop, according to footage posted online.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
