Good morning, it’s Monday.
The change of seasons always fills me with dread, because I am one of those people who tends to – like clockwork – be felled by whatever virus du jour is going around this time of year.
I tried all the immune-boosting things – Vitamin C, prioritizing sleep (as much as a chronic insomniac is able), remembering to wash my hands, etc. and so forth. Sadly, none of my proactive efforts worked, because I’ve got a bonanza of a sinus infection.
This is standard for me, every bug that I catch goes right to my sinuses and sets up shop. Nothing I do – Neti pot, steaming showers, copious draughts of hot lemon water, extra Zinc – seems to work in reducing either symptoms or duration. I can’t stand over-the-counter decongestants, though I will use them in a pinch. They dry me out and make me feel like my head is disconnected from my body. So disconcerting.
Nope, the best thing one can do is keep pushing the fluids, try to get enough rest, and wait for the bug to run its course. Unless the pressure gets unbearable, I try to stay away from meds, because I want them to work when I REALLY need them.
There is some solace in knowing I’m not alone in being prone to illness in the shoulder season.
When the season changes from warm to cool, not only do we spend more time indoors, leaving us more likely to be exposed to nasty germs, but the drop in temperatures leaves the body less able to fight off viruses, which multiply this time of year. Also, the mucus membrane inside our noses gets dry, making a more habitable environment for viruses to thrive.
One particularly sad side effect of a sinus infection is that nothing really tastes terribly good – assuming one can taste much of anything at all. I find myself gravitating toward things based on their texture. Toast is my favorite all-time food, in sickness AND in health. But around this time of year, I also enjoy a good crisp apple, the tarter the better.
It turns out that the spate of hot and then wet weather we had this past summer was good for apple growers, and the cool nights we’ve experienced of late helps the fruit turn red, which appeals to consumers. Though this isn’t the bonanza of a crop that farmers saw a few years back, it’s still shaping up to be a decent year.
USApple is forecasting 259.5 million bushels in the 2024-25 season, down 10.1% from final figures for 2023-24, which was a record-breaking harvest.
Though many people don’t automatically associate New York with agriculture, we do have a robust industry here on many fronts – including apples. In face, we live in the second-largest apple producing state in the nation, according to the New York Apple Association, averaging about 29.5 million bushels a year produced by some 600 commercial growers.
New York lags FAR behind the top apple produced in the U.S., Washington State, which accounts for over half of the domestically grown apples and has been the leading apple-growing state since the early 1920s. But, in my opinion anyway, what we lack in quantity, we make up in quality. I love a New York apple. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up eating them, but they just hit different- better, quite frankly – for me.
Happy National Apple Day, all. I don’t think you need any help figuring out the best way to celebrate. The question is not whether you eat a local apple, but HOW. Out of hand? In a pie? Mixed in your oatmeal? Added to your pancakes? Made into a sauce and served either savory or sweet? The possibilities are endless.
Bonus: An apple a day really is good for your health, though I can’t vouch for the “doctor away” claim – especially given my current under-the-weather status.
If you enjoyed this weekend’s warm spell, do I have news for you! It’s continuing, at least for the next several days. Today will be downright balmy, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 70s. Skies will be bright and sunny.
In the headlines…
With the presidential race a dead heat two weeks before Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is moving aggressively to make sure voters in the battlegrounds remember precisely why they rejected Donald Trump four years ago.
Harris said that Trump was “cruel” for how he talked about the grieving family of a Georgia mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill, as she put reproductive care at the center of her pitch to voters.
Harris celebrated her 60th birthday by rallying Black voters in Georgia yesterday with “souls to the polls” visits to two community churches.
In a biography set to publish a week before the election, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell backed special counsel Jack Smith and said he hopes Trump will “pay a price” for his role in Jan. 6th.
The CBS News show “60 Minutes” responded to Trump’s claims that the network selectively edited an interview with his Democratic opponent, Harris, to make her look good.
Harris’s campaign set a record for the biggest fund-raising quarter ever this fall, raising $1 billion in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30.
Wearing an apron and a red tie, Trump served up some fries and political shade against his rival during a behind-the-counter stint at McDonald’s yesterday, which drew a monster crowd to the Feasterville-Trevose, Pa. fast food restaurant.
A New York man pleaded guilty on Friday to a felony charge of civil disorder for storming the U.S. Capitol while armed with a knife on Jan. 6, 2021, as Trump supporters sought to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
The judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election interference case made public Friday a heavily redacted trove of documents that provide a small glimpse into the evidence prosecutors will present if the case ever goes to trial.
Overseas voting has become the latest battlefront in Republicans’ legal challenges leading up to the election.
People in Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s life have implored her to abandon her bid for president, lest she throw the election to Trump. She’s on the ballot in almost every critical state with no plans to drop out if the race.
The Israeli military conducted a wave of airstrikes across Lebanon yesterday, targeting branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan, a financial association associated with Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “nothing will deter us, we will keep going until victory,” after a drone struck his vacation home in northern Israel Saturday as the military continued its operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
Neither Netanyahu, 74, nor his wife were in the area when the drone was fired from Lebanon at his residence in Caesarea, his spokesperson said.
The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed deep concern about an alleged major leak of US intelligence detailing Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran and stressed that he’s following the situation “closely.”
Yahya Sinwar and his family fled into an tunnel just hours before the Oct. 7 massacre, video released by the IDF Saturday shows. The Hamas chief, 61, and his wife can be seen ushering in their two young sons through the narrow bunker hallway in the footage.
Visitors to state parks generated about $5.6 billion in economic activity in 2021, according to estimates in a new study by the nonprofit advocacy group Parks and Trails New York.
New York has been losing population to other states for years and new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows where they moved in 2023. The top destination: Florida.
Natural gas prices could soar 11% this winter compared to last year, while electricity prices could fall about 2%, the state Public Service Commission estimated.
Decades of mismanagement and financial neglect have turned the New York State Museum, a trove of national treasures, into a dreary place, even though the state has set aside more than $75 million to improve it.
A Republican-led House committee is demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams cough up records on the controversial lease extension of a troublesome migrant encampment at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field.
Long Islands pols are appalled by the massive price tag of tickets to next year’s golf Ryder Cup at a state-run course in Bethpage — and are calling on Hochul to step in and cut the cost.
Federal prosecutors on Friday pushed back forcefully on a motion by Adams to dismiss a key bribery count against him.
“Adams claims that accepting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of benefits in exchange for pressuring a City agency is ‘routine’ and ‘common.’ But however routine that may have been for Adams, the law permits a jury to conclude that it was nonetheless illegal,” prosecutors said.
The filing is the latest installment in what will most likely be a long, contentious legal battle between the mayor and federal prosecutors, led by Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
In less than a year, Williams has taken on a powerful senator, a hip hop star, the mayor of America’s largest city and one of the richest men in the world.
Adams’ bid to create more housing through a seismic overhaul of New York City’s zoning regulations will face its most important test so far this week, as the City Council kicks off two days of public hearings on the plan.
With shelter arrests on pace to soar 64% this year, a bipartisan group of pols is demanding that Adams immediately boot migrant gang members “as a matter of urgent public safety.”
Adams has stalled plans to build bus and bicycle lanes. With his leadership under threat, the projects’ supporters see an opening.
The city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has officially endorsed Israel foe and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani for mayor.
The number of people under 18 accused of major crimes, including murders, robberies and assaults, has increased sharply in New York City in the past seven years, Police Department figures show — a steep trajectory that has alarmed law enforcement officials.
A Manhattan actor and screenwriter ran for City Council to make a political satire about it — and staged a video of himself with a dominatrix to feature in the mockumentary, his campaign manager admitted.
Tren de Aragua has become the “scourge” of Times Square thanks to the Harris-Biden administration’s lax border policy — and the feds need to swoop in to stop the ruthless migrant gang, ex-NYPD top cop Ray Kelly said.
Hundreds of heartbroken fans gathered in Washington Square Park Saturday night for a mass vigil to honor and remember singer Liam Payne – three days after the former boy bander tragically fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
The proportion of Black students at several of New York’s most selective colleges plummeted in some of this year’s freshmen classes, the first enrolled after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions.
The New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Public Library joined hundreds of libraries nationwide in a “Freedom to Read Day of Action” on Saturday in response to a spike in censorship across the country.
Swing districts in the New York suburbs have burst onto the political scene as a surprising and crucial battleground in the tight battle for the House of Representatives, with neither party holding a clear edge in the final stretch before Election Day.
Laura Gillen, a Long Island Democrat looking to unseat Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, has close ties to an anti-Israel Muslim activist who once accused Israel of building a pier with Palestinian corpses.
The village of Hempstead blasted out social media promos for “get out the vote” rally at Kennedy Memorial Park on Oct. 17 boosting Gillen — and featuring Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t running in New York’s suburbs — but she’s become a campaign issue there in one of the Empire State’s most hotly contested congressional swing districts.
A pastor running a Bible study live-streamed by GOP Assemblyman David DiPietro claimed God “couldn’t care less” about nearly 2,800 New Yorkers killed on 9/11 — and that the victims were to blame for their own deaths because they were unrepentant.
St. Peter’s Health Partners, which includes St. Peter’s Hospital, and the UnitedHealthcare insurance company, have reached an agreement, after a months-long standoff, allowing those covered by the insurer to have continued access to the hospital’s network.
The man who bought the shotgun for the alleged Temple Israel shooter was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison on Friday.
A person was shot and another was stabbed at an outdoor party that attracted hundreds off Depot Road in Guilderland late Saturday night into Sunday morning.
A La Niña climate pattern is expected to influence winter weather across much of the country this year, bringing warmer, drier conditions to the southern US and wetter conditions to the north. For the Capital Region, the impact appears to be less dramatic.
New York got its first basketball championship in 48 years, as the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx in front of exuberant fans in Brooklyn.
Nothing has come easy for the Yankees this year, and their final step to claiming the franchise’s 41st American League pennant was no different. But for the first time in 15 years, they are finally headed back to the World Series.
The Dodgers, for the fourth time in eight years, are going back to the World Series, taking the National League pennant by routing the New York Mets, 10-5, at Dodger Stadium to win the NLCS – 4 games to 2.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
