Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
In a word as unpredictable as ours, where the political sands are shifting by the day – if not the minute – it’s nice that there are some things we can rely on that are solid, dependable, and unchanging.
Things like vanilla ice cream.
Don’t get me wrong. I know there are variations of vanilla ice cream – some passable and some out-of-this-world fantastic. I personally wouldn’t know, since I almost never order it myself, being more of a chocolate and peanut butter fan, as has been established many times before in this space.
I have, however, on rare occasions enjoyed vanilla as an accompaniment – say, in an affogato, which is actually vanilla gelato luxuriating in a bath of espresso and (if you so choose) liqueur, or atop a slice of pie or berry crumble. And I have enjoyed these quite heartily.
It’s just that on its own vanilla is, well, a little plain vanilla. And that is actually its appeal and its strength.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed July National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of that month as National Ice Cream Day, calling the frozen treat “a nutritious and wholesome food, enjoyed by over ninety percent of the people in the United States.”
He wasn’t merely acting in acknowledgement of the fact that the average American consumes an estimated 20 pounds – 4 gallons – of ice cream annually, according to the International Dairy Foods Association – but also the fact that ice cream is big business, generating about $19 billion in revenue annually.
Today, one can get a whole host of dairy-free ice cream alternatives – from soy to coconut and everything in between. (Though, given the name, is it still really ice cream if there’s no milk involved? I’ll leave that for you to decide for yourself.
But as far as flavors go, it’s vanilla that remains on top (or at least No. 2, running closely behind chocolate, depending on which survey results you believe).
Maybe that’s because as humans we’ve had a long time to get acquainted with vanilla and develop a taste for it. It reportedly dates back to ancient Mesoamerican civilizations – the Mayans and the Aztecs, to be exact. Vanilla beans were considered precious and prized for their aroma and taste, making their way into everything from desserts to medicines.
Sadly, most of the vanilla you’re getting today isn’t derived from the plant itself, but rather a far cheaper, chemical source. I’m not sure if I’ve ever encountered the real thing.
I’m betting it’s one of those “if you have it, know” and since I’ve never been blown away by anything vanilla – a sentence that sounds pretty oxymoronic, now that I’m re-reading it – I think I still have yet to have the experience.
Today is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, which is not to be confused with a whole slew of ice cream-related “holidays“, honoring a wide range of flavors and concoctions.
Some of these fall in the middle of winter, which isn’t exactly optimal ice cream eating weather, in my humble opinion, but, then again, I know plenty of people who always order their coffee iced, no matter how cold it is outside. So there’s no accounting for taste.
It will be rainy this morning, giving way to a drier but overcast afternoon. Temperatures will top out in the low-to-mid 80s.
In the headlines…
Vice President Kamala Harris moved swiftly to lock up Democratic delegates behind her campaign for the White House after President Biden stepped aside amid concerns from within their own party that he couldn’t beat Republican Donald Trump.
The Associated Press said late yesterday that Ms. Harris had secured the backing of more than the 1,976 delegates needed to capture the nomination in the first round of voting.
On her first full day in the race, Harris drew endorsements from her final possible rivals, hauled in record sums of cash and attacked Trump.
Harris spoke yesterday at a White House celebration with NCAA athletes, her first appearance since Biden announced he was leaving the race and endorsed her as his replacement. She praised his “unmatched” legacy.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker who had been one of the notable holdouts to Harris, initially encouraging a primary to strengthen the eventual nominee, endorsed Harris, lending her “enthusiastic support” to Harris’ effort to lead the party.
Harris’ presidential campaign announced that it brought in $81 million in the first 24 hours — an eye-popping sum that easily dwarfed anything the Biden-Harris campaign had raised in a single day this election cycle.
The funds will help rebuild a Democratic war chest that was at risk of being depleted in the weeks of uncertainty after Biden’s poor debate, as big donors put a pause on fund-raising.
Meeting with staffers, Harris framed her campaign against Trump as a choice between the future and a dark past. President Biden called in, too: “I’m watching you, kid,” he told her. “I love you.”
Biden has canceled nine trips that were scheduled for the next two weeks after suddenly dropping out of the 2024 race. He had been planned to leave yesterday for the West Coast, where he was to make stops in California, Denver, Houston and Austin.
In JD Vance’s first solo appearance as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, the Ohio Senator questioned Harris’s appreciation for the US and chastised her fellow Democrats, who he accused of supporting Biden “until he became political deadweight.”
New York City Mayor Adams endorsed the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, adding to the growing chorus supporting her bid. “I think she is the voice that the party needs right now,” the Democratic mayor said on Morning Joe.
The mayor said he believes Harris can strike the right balance between public safety and criminal justice reform, which is what he thinks that Black communities want.
A slew of other New York Democrats – from the governor and state Party Chair Jay Jacobs to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins – announced their support of Harris’ historic candidacy.
New York’s 307 delegates to the Democratic National Convention suddenly find themselves with more power to determine the party’s next presidential nominee, after Biden dropped his White House bid.
Trump’s lawyers appealed the nearly half-billion dollar penalty in his New York civil fraud case, arguing the former president is one of the most “visionary and iconic real estate developers in American history” whose lies about his net worth made banks richer.
The want an appellate court to overturn Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling that determined Trump and others committed crimes running his real estate empire by vastly exaggerating his net worth to get fruitful terms in business deals.
In their lengthy appeal to the First Department of the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, Trump’s lawyers argued that many of the deals in question in the AG’s suit had occurred long ago and that the statute of limitations for violations it cited had run out.
The House Oversight Committee held embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s feet to the fire, with some members not holding back in expressing their disdain for her oversight of the agency after Trump was nearly killed in an assassination attempt.
Cheatle acknowledged that there were “significant” problems at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where the former president was shot in the ear, and she didn’t downplay the historical and political significance of the event.
Western New York Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy introduced a resolution demanding Cheatle’s termination, saying she “must be held accountable for the unacceptable failure” to keep Trump and rally attendees safe.
Delta Airlines is the only carrier still struggling to get back on track in the wake of last week’s global cyber outage, a delay that’s drawn the attention of federal officials.
The airline canceled more than 800 flights yesterday alone, and its CEO said it would be a few more days before the company could right itself, drawing unwanted attention from the federal government.
In a public letter released Sunday, Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, said the airline paused flying following the Friday outage, resulting in roughly 3,500 flights being canceled from Friday to Saturday and continuing into Sunday.
A law establishing deed theft as a crime and granting the state Attorney General’s office the ability to prosecute those cases went into effect on Friday after being enacted as part of the state budget in April.
The state is advancing plans to convert a long-shuttered Chelsea women’s prison into affordable housing, as Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the developers chosen to shepherd the transformation of the Bayview Correctional Facility.
New York City’s biggest job engine, the CDPAP program, has become a “racket” that is being exploited and largely funded through Medicaid, Hochul says.
After two years, rehabilitation work on bridges over the Staten Island Expressway has finally been completed, the governor announced.
Tens of thousands of disabled New Yorkers have been left out in the cold by Hochul’s congestion pricing pause, which has already canceled the MTA’s plans to install improvements that help them more easily navigate the subway system.
Arva Rice, the interim head of New York City’s independent civilian police oversight board, who had criticized the Police Department and had sought more investigative power and funding for the agency, resigned after being forced out by Mayor Adams.
Rice submitted her resignation yesterday morning in a letter to Adams, stepping down as interim chairwoman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board on Aug. 15. The move, while not unexpected, took many by surprise inside the agency.
“I always addressed every issue brought before me, as both a Board member and as Interim Chair, with a fair and balanced approach, whether it met with criticism or applause,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
At the center of the gripe between Rice and Adams is the fatal police shooting of Kawaski Trawick, a 32-year-old who was shot and killed by police in his apartment in 2019.
Delivery workers who rely on e-bikes will be able to exchange unsafe bikes and batteries for ones approved by New York City and charge them at city-inspected stations under a policy unveiled by Mayor Adams.
The new policy — which will put $2 million into the e-bike exchange program — is aimed at addressing a series of horrific fires in recent years that were caused by faulty e-bike batteries.
Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan was slapped with an ethics complaint for allegedly mocking a fellow council member accused of biting a cop during a protest against a homeless shelter.
Queens Sen. John Liu is putting pressure on the MTA to incorporate more local feedback into a pending redesign of Queens’ bus routes.
A New York City charity that donated $25 million to the City University of New York a decade ago wants its money back, claiming in a lawsuit filed on Friday that the school reneged on an agreement to use the cash to build a new community college facility.
A New York couple who bought their 16-year-old son a BMW were sentenced to three years of probation and 26 weeks of parenting classes after he drove the car at more than 100 miles an hour, slammed into a truck and killed his passenger, a 14-year-old girl.
A New York disciplinary panel said that a state judge should be removed from office for engaging in a “racially offensive, profane” diatribe during which she invoked her judicial position, threatened to shoot Black teenagers and expressed a pro-police bias.
A man was found dead in the water off the coast of Rockaway Beach early yesterday morning in what appears to be the fifth drowning death at a New York City beach this summer.
Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler is going to the Common Council to ask the legislative body to consider lowering the city speed limit to 25 mph to, he said, protect pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists.
New York does not offer license plates to Gold Star families, the immediate relatives of service members killed while on active duty. Adam DeMarsico, whose older brother, Army Spc. Michael DeMarsico, was killed in Afghanistan in 2012, wants to change that.
Nicholas Criscone, principal of Glen-Worden Elementary School, was killed in a car accident Saturday morning. He was 50 years old.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daughter, Mariah, married her longtime beau, Tellef Lundevall, AKA “the boyfriend,” at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, MA.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
