Good middle-of-the-week morning, AKA Wednesday.
My full name is a bit of a mouthful – Elizabeth Marianne Benjamin Smith.
Even before I got married and added that non-hyphenated extra last name, it was still on the long side, which was very apparent to me when I was filling in those bubble government and/or test forms (Remember those? Yes, I’m also old).
I like my name just fine, and I think – as per Ashkenazi tradition – I’m named in honor of a deceased relative. But I just don’t identify as an “Elizabeth”. Almost no one has ever routinely called me by my full name, except my mom when she’s very, VERY serious or very, VERY mad. I’ve generally always been known as “Liz.”
There are a lot of other options, I know. But I hate them all. So, not “Bitsy,” or “Eliza” or “Beth” or “Liza” or “Libby” or, G-d forbid, “Bessie”. Just “Liz,” professionally and personally, OK?
Please, and thanks.
There were, of course, some nicknames that I didn’t like and couldn’t avoid while growing up, because kids are kids and they are prone to teasing. “Private Benjamin” was one of them. (If you’re not familiar, it was the title of a 1980 film starring actress Goldie Hawn about a sheltered woman who joins the Army on a whim and gets a lot more than she bargained for).
Another was Benjamin Franklin – kinda obvious. Equally obvious at the time: “Benji” (who, by the way, was a lovable, floppy, but kinda scruffy dog who starred in a number of movies, mostly in the 70s and 80s – not exactly something an angst-ridden, self-conscious teen wants to be compared to).
Yet another was “Lizard,” which I initially hated and railed against, but eventually embraced – in part because it was most used by one of my closest friends at the time. I even went so far as to get a small lizard (OK, more like a salamander, really) tattooed on my right shoulder in red and black while living in France. It’s much faded, but still recognizable.
You should not misconstrue this to mean that I am a big lizard fan. I feel slightly better about lizards than I do about snakes, spiders, and vermin (rats, mice, etc.), but that’s not saying a whole lot. I guess I tolerate them, but would prefer not to encounter them on the regular. They’re scaly and kind of scarily prehistoric looking. Best to keep your distance.
“Lizard”, by the way, is the common name used for all squamate reptiles other than snakes. There are somewhere between 4,600 and 7,000 species of lizards (depending on what website you’re perusing), ranging in size from very small (geckos and chameleons) to the 10-plus-foot long, 170-plus-pound Komodo dragon.
Other commonly known lizards include iguanas, Gila monsters, monitors, and skinks. Some lizards could be mistaken for snakes (ie, they don’t have legs), but most have four legs, run in a unique side-to-side manner, and sport long bodies, tails, and moveable eyelids, which they tend to blink in a slow and creepy way.
Most lizards eat a variety of plants, eggs, insects, and small animals and are not venomous, with the exception of the aforementioned Gila and Komodo varieties. The Komodo is the world’s most dangerous lizard because it has sufficient venom to kill a human. Thankfully, they’re only found on Komodo Island in Indonesia (and select zoos).
Lizards can be found on every continent except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. There’s an estimated 82 million of them worldwide. One thing about them that’s particularly notable is their lifespan – about 60 years, on average, but potentially they can stick around for a century or longer, which puts them in competition with tortoises.
Today is World Lizard Day, the origins of which are murky, according to the interwebs, though the general consensus is that it’s an opportunity to teach people about these unique reptiles, dispel myths about them, and perhaps win them some fans – or at least educate people like me into being more tolerant and less hating/afraid.
Mission accomplished.
Expect sunny skies today, with some intermittent clouds. Temperatures will top out in the mid-80s.
In the headlines…
The United Auto Workers union filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk for threatening to intimidate workers who go on strike.
During Trump’s interview on X Monday night with Musk, the pair discussed a potential role for Musk in Trump’s administration should he get reelected. Trump called Musk “the cutter,” and praised Musk for his anti-union stances.
The Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) endorsed Vice President Harris for the White House, according to a statement posted to social media.
TNBC’s executive board announced the endorsement in a press release posted on Facebook. It comes as the larger union has stopped short of endorsing any candidate in the presidential race yet.
Harris has a perceived advantage over Trump on several leadership qualities such as honesty, a new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds, although Americans are slightly more likely to trust Trump on the economy and immigration.
In grappling with migration, Harris proceeded cautiously. She focused on boosting private investment in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala; trying to create jobs to bolster economies and dissuade migrants from making the perilous journey to the US.
First, Trump went after Harris’ race. Now, he’s going after her appearance, saying she “looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live.”
The Democratic group End Citizens United has filed a complaint with the FEC arguing that Trump’s interview with Musk was an illegal corporate contribution to Trump’s presidential campaign.
A year after a Georgia grand jury accused Trump and others of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state, the case has stalled with no chance of going to trial before the end of this year.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed union members in Los Angeles yesterday in his first solo campaign stop – part of an effort by the Democratic ticket to bolster support from organized labor as Trump also makes a play for working-class voters.
Walz defended himself against Republican attacks on his military service record while in Los Angeles, CA, during his first solo campaign event since being named Harris’s running mate.
Amplify, a coalition of progressive groups, released its first digital ad supporting Harris’s bid for the White House, part of a $25 million voter outreach campaign targeting Democrats and disaffected independents in battleground states.
A man carrying a backpack broke into a Trump campaign office outside Washington, D.C., on Sunday night in what is being investigated as a burglary, according to the local sheriff’s office in Virginia.
President Joe Biden said he’ll attend Trump’s inauguration if the Republican candidate defeats Harris in November’s election. “I have good manners,” the 46th president said. “Not like him.”
Biden said he ended his reelection bid after hearing from congressional Democrats that he’d harm their chances in November, and concluding that he’d be “a real distraction” if he stayed in the race.
Biden traveled to New Orleans to focus on a project close to his heart: the “moonshot” effort to sharply cut cancer deaths in the United States that he carried over from his time as vice president and has become a hallmark of his presidency.
Hunter Biden sought assistance from the U.S. government for a potentially lucrative energy project in Italy while his father was vice president, according to newly released records and interviews.
The records, which the Biden administration had withheld for years, indicate that Hunter Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016 seeking assistance for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he was a board member.
Hunter Biden is moving to exclude evidence from his upcoming tax trial of his allegedly improper overseas business dealings and potential lobbying of US officials on behalf of foreign principals, according to a court filing submitted by his legal team.
Progressives in the House received a much-needed victory on last night with Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar winning her primary one week after her fellow “squad” member Rep. Cori Bush, a Montana Democrat, lost hers.
Unlike the primaries for Bush and New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, also ousted recently, Omar’s race did not draw the involvement of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) despite her vocal criticism of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
The group of progressive House members known as the “squad” received a badly needed win when Omar held off the same primary challenger for the second cycle in a row.
Eric Hovde, a wealthy businessman, won the Republican nomination for Senate in Wisconsin, according to The Associated Press, setting up a key race this fall with Senator Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic incumbent.
Wisconsin voters appear to have rejected a pair of ballot measures that would have limited the governor’s power to spend money.
The federal fraud trial against former US Rep. George Santos, slated to start in a matter of weeks, is coming into focus after a federal judge ruled that jurors will have their identities kept secret from the public.
A federal judge ruled the jury in the September Santos fraud trial will be anonymous and will not be selected using a questionnaire as the defense had requested,
Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state has sent $2 billion in bonuses to some 800,000 qualifying health care workers around New York.
The Citizens Budget Commission wants the governor to halt a just-passed extension of the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program so a study of the controversial subsidy can be completed.
Hochul thanked first responders at the Canton Volunteer Fire Department yesterday for their handling of severe weather late last week in Northern New York.
Hochul revealed a plan to invest over $54 million in three airports in North Country at a news conference yesterday, to modernize the facilities and spur economic opportunities in the area.
Nine members of the New York City Council’s Common Sense Caucus sent a letter to Hochul decrying the waiver process for the 1,000-foot buffer between legal cannabis shops – thus allowing two or more stores to sell weed on the same block.
The New York State Bar Association announced that Matthew Pennello, former cabinet affairs director for Hochul, has been named as the association’s new head of government relations.
The New York Department of Health issued a statewide standing order for vaccines combating a common respiratory virus, as health officials encouraged older or pregnant adults to seek a dose ahead of the change in seasons.
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s girlfriend, Rebecca Lamorte, has a new post at Albany’s biggest lobbying firm — after getting canned from her previous job at a tiny labor outfit.
New York City’s campaign watchdog is scrutinizing a series of donations to Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign by owners and employees of a Queens waste hauling company that later won a set of coveted licenses from the sanitation department.
The Adams administration quietly eliminated funding for dozens of parks workers who are for the city’s forests, wetlands and other natural areas — spaces key to mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring New Yorkers can safely access nature.
Adams reported that there has been a “huge” decrease in the number of migrants showing up in New York City every week — allowing him to begin breathing a sigh of relief over a crisis that once seemed to define his administration.
Gifts from Frank Carone’s wife, Diane, to Adams’ partner, Tracey Collins, highlight the power quartet’s close ties. The gifts were worth thousands of dollars, but there’s no indication they violate any laws.
Central Park frolickers could soon find themselves under Big Brother surveillance from NYPD drones flying above them, as the iconic green space struggles with a whopping crime increase.
Adams addressed the migrant crisis and officials say encampments set up near a shelter on Randall’s Island won’t be tolerated. But the question remains — where will they go?
Adams is planning to travel to Chicago next week for the Democratic National Convention. He said he is “excited” to meet with other Democrats who have praised his administration’s management of New York City’s migrant crisis.
Adams said hopes that he the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Harris, will take time at the convention to talk about the country’s migrant crisis despite ongoing sensitivity in the party around the issue.
New York City has likely surpassed $5 billion in spending on services for migrants — including nearly $2 billion alone on housing the scores of new arrivals flooding into the Big Apple, according to city data.
Yusef Salaam, the New York City Council member who was wrongly imprisoned as a member of the Central Park Five, has been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention.
NYPD Internal Affairs improperly grilled a deputy chief suing senior mayoral adviser Timothy Pearson for retaliation on the content of his lawsuit line by line three days after he filed it, according to a new court filing.
Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, a key political Adams ally, has made her 2025 campaign for city comptroller official by launching a website and releasing a video on why she’s making a run for the fiscal watchdog post.
Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, who currently serves as the council’s finance chair, is eyeing a run for the hotly contested comptroller’s seat in next year’s election.
Applications for permits to carry guns have spiked in both New York City and New Jersey since the U.S. Supreme Court ordered New York and other states with strict regulations to make it easier for people to arm themselves in the summer of 2022.
A Manhattan judge has removed one of the last legal obstacles to closing Mount Sinai’s Beth Israel Hospital, a 130-year-old medical center that serves a large swath of Lower Manhattan.
Nurses enjoy more protections now than they did before the pandemic. A large hospital system, NewYork-Presbyterian, has fought some of their gains, including by appealing to the Supreme Court.
Former Sergeants Benevolent Association president Joe Toal – who led the NYPD union for more than two decades — died on Sunday. He was 87.
An FBI investigation of ballot fraud in Rensselaer County has reportedly been expanded to include a federal grand jury review of various energy contracts with vendors who have done business with the county, including at HVCC.
During the $2.3 million renovations of its offices, RISE will temporarily shift its management team from its Union Street, Saratoga Springs, offices to a city-owned building on Williams Street.
Phil Calderone, who as CEO of the Albany County Airport Authority has been credited with leading an ongoing transformation of the facility, was informed by the authority’s board behind closed doors this week that his contract will not be renewed.
Ralph Ambrosio sees a path in a three-way race for a Republican to become the next Albany County district attorney for the first time in 50 years.
A federal judge ruled that an Amsterdam eye doctor illegally fired an employee who filed a complaint with the state Department of Health over the office’s failure to follow precautionary protocols during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dozens of corgis will compete tomorrow at the Altamont Fair in its first-ever race for the little-legged breed.
Paramount, the parent company of CBS, Nickelodeon and MTV, told its employees it was beginning a series of long-scheduled job cuts that would winnow its staff by roughly 15 percent in the United States.
The company’s three co-chief executives said in an internal note that the cuts — which would be “incredibly hard” — were necessitated by shifts in the entertainment industry.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
