Good morning. It’s finally Friday. I, for one, am relieved.
I did a lot of running around this week. And I did some stupid things that set me back a bit – including pouring salad dressing into my laptop, which, as a result, now requires a new keyboard.
I know that I’m lucky it’s still working more or less. But given the fact that it’s an iMac, keyboard replacement is something I’m not sure actually can be done either 1) easily or 2) affordably. I would really prefer not to have to buy a new computer and transfer everything over. I’ll keep you posted.
(As an aside, this is a good time to plug the Right to Repair law, which you can read more about here).
I really should stop eating meals over my computer. All the literature I’ve read indicates that mindful eating – taking a break away from your desk to focus on your food and give yourself a moment away from work – is really better for your health, and yet I don’t prioritize it.
And look where that got me.
We’re moving into a moment when we’re thinking a lot about food. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, which, for those of you who have been here for a while know, it not my favorite holiday. I like the family gathering aspect, of course, and having a day (or two) off is always welcome.
But eating to excess isn’t my thing. And the carb-heavy, largely bland traditional fare pretty much leaves me cold. I do love a good turkey trot, but that’s a subject for a different day.
Pretty much the only Thanksgiving specific food I look forward to is cranberry sauce. I love it so much and I’m not sure why I don’t incorporate it into my meals throughout the year. It is available, though usually tucked away on some lower supermarket shelf until it is given place of pride around the holidays.
I love the tart-sweet combination of cranberry sauce, and also how it adds a much-needed zing to the Thanksgiving plate. I am a big condiment fan, generally speaking, so I guess it’s not surprising that I love this one, too. Though don’t get me started on gravy. Pools of coagulated, brownish liquid fat? Hard pass.
I would not turn down a homemade cranberry relish with orange peel and fancy spices. But really, the jellied kind that comes out of the can and keeps its oblong shape, with the rings indicating where you should cut it is my absolute fav.
Technically speaking, a relish is different from a sauce. (The former is a condiment with a chunky texture, while the latter is usually liquid or semi-liquid that is smoother and/or creamy in texture).
Today is National Relish Day. If you’re interested in the history of this delicious side dish, click here. If you need to be reminded of NPR host Susan Stamberg’s role in popularizing cranberry relish, click here, though frankly, I don’t think her version sounds terribly appetizing. To each their own.
There’s more rain in the forecast. It’s a little depressing to see everything so wet and grain and chilly, but at least the risk of wildfires is reducing. Today we’ll see showers and clouds with temperatures in the mid 40s. Tomorrow looks like more of the same. Sunday seems to be the best of the weekend days, weather-wise, with partly cloudy skies – but no rain – and temperatures in the high 40s.
In the headlines…
Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said that he is withdrawing as Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, writing on social media that his nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction.”
Gaetz for attorney general mid-flight eight days ago because he wanted to shock a Washington institution — the DOJ — into submission. The political rollercoaster that ensued ended as it became clear the U.S. Senate wasn’t on board.
Trump named longtime his ally Pam Bondi, a fellow Florida Republican, as his new choice for attorney general, capping a tumultuous week for previous pick Gaetz.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
Bondi is a lobbyist who served as Florida’s first female state attorney general, she became a member of Trump’s impeachment defense team and backed his false claims of election fraud in 2020.
Bondi spent 18 years as a prosecutor, during which she tried cases “ranging from domestic violence to capital murder,” according to the bio page at her lobbying firm.
Immediately after he withdrew his name for AG, Republicans started questioning whether Gaetz will attempt to reclaim the seat he was re-elected to earlier this month or seek a different position — including lobbying to take over for Marco Rubio in the Senate.
Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, who took a step to trigger a vote to release the House Ethics Committee’s report into allegations against Gaetz, said in a statement that while he welcomed the withdrawal, it’s important that the report still be made public.
The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with then-Rep. Gaetz reportedly told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017.
Linda McMahon, Trump’s choice for education secretary, has been accused in a recent lawsuit of failing to stop a ringside announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment from grooming and sexually abusing children in the 1980s and 1990s.
Speaking to young, Democratic elected officials, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called for reorienting how the party communicates with voters, warning that expressing outrage at Trump would not be enough to lead Democrats to victory.
Sen. Bob Casey, a three-term Democrat from Pennsylvania long seen as an institution in state politics, was defeated by his Republican challenger, former hedge-fund executive David McCormick, in a stunning upset in one of the nation’s top Senate races.
The Republican-controlled House yesterday passed a bill that would give the government broad powers to punish non-profit organizations it deems support “terrorism”.
Flash displays of hate and white power are happening more frequently in the United States, a trend that experts say is a reaction to changing demographics, political turmoil and social catalysts.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ members are breaking ranks and trying to shove aside older colleagues for top committee spots.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland is privately mulling a bid to challenge Rep. Jerry Nadler to become the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, the latest example of generational turnover that has begun in the post-election period.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The unprecedented move drew a furious reaction from Netanyahu, who said in a statement: “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and accusations made against it.”
President Joe Biden has condemned the decision by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant as “outrageous.”
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Muhammad Deif, Hamas’s military chief, accusing him of crimes against humanity, including murder, hostage taking and sexual violence. IDF confirmed it killed Deif in July.
A Manhattan federal judge will hold a hearing over whether to freeze the hotly contested congestion pricing plan — just two weeks before the first-in-the-nation toll is set to take effect.
Business leaders want Hochul to conduct a “deep analysis” of future energy needs and supplies, including options for nuclear power plants, as the initial mandates of the 2019 Climate Act are nearing and concerns have been raised about meeting its goals.
A State Police narcotics investigator faces federal charges after allegedly revealing information about a covert operation and advising a drug dealer to destroy evidence.
Some state tax incentive programs could be in peril next year as lawmakers consider slimming down underperforming initiatives to prepare for a potential plunge in federal funding.
The state Gaming Commission accused the Catskill Regional OTB of “false aspersions” and “a pattern of mismanagement” in a scathing letter, after the beleaguered gambling company abruptly announced it would stop taking wagers.
A Chemung County man whose pet squirrel and raccoon seized and euthanized by the DEC has not been charged with felony weapons possession despite investigators having allegedly recovered an unregistered short-barreled assault rifle at his home.
Construction has been completed on a $30.8 million project to modernize Exit 105 on state Route 17 in Sullivan County, a major artery for travelers going to and from the Catskills region, according to an announcement from Hochul’s office.
The New York City Council advanced but weakened Mayor Eric Adams’ City of Yes housing plan, with the administration committing to spend $5 billion on affordable housing programs and infrastructure improvements.
Hochul, who has made solving New York’s housing shortage one of her priorities as governor, will provide $1 billion in state funding to seal the City of Yes deal, making her the surprise piece to come out of a yearslong battle to reshape the city’s zoning code.
Several aspects of the plan were scaled back in the last hours of negotiations with the City Council’s speaker’s office and City Planning Department, including the number of units to build, the location of accessory dwelling units and parking mandates.
The plan was passed by the Council’s Land Use Committee in an 8-to-2 vote. The hearing was delayed for hours as opponents successfully fought to slightly water down some of the original proposal.
Jessica Tisch will confront a crushing list of problems as soon as she returns on Monday to be sworn in as the leader of the New York City Police Department.
Federal security agents were the ones who apprehended a man accused of stabbing three people Monday, law enforcement officials said, despite Adams only crediting the NYPD for the arrest earlier this week.
On the heels of a delayed victory on congestion pricing, the MTA is asking for more funding in 2025 – including a pitch to the state for $33 billion in new cash for mass transit investments and a fare increase on rail and bus riders.
The city sanitation department’s rollout of curbside composting program is facing a rotten problem: Most New Yorkers are still throwing organics in the trash, and landlords of many large buildings haven’t bothered to set up bins allowing participation.
New York City Football Club announced that its new stadium set to open in 2027 will be named Etihad Park – an agreement for the venue at Willets Point that will run through the next 20 years.
Chuck Scarborough, 81, the broadcaster who for 50 years brought New Yorkers news of blizzards, financial collapses, terror attacks and assassinations, said that he would step down from his anchoring duties at WNBC.
Rain began to fall in New York City early yesterday, providing a partial respite after weeks of abnormally dry conditions forced the city to declare its first drought warning in over 20 years. It was not enough, however, to end drought conditions.
Daniel Penny’s defense team called an expert witness yesterday, who challenged the medical examiner’s determination that Jordan Neely died as a result of the former Marine choking him on a subway car.
A suspect was busted yesterday in the slashing of a Danish tourist on the Upper West Side after his mother identified him to cops, NYPD sources said.
A line of keffiyeh-clad protesters silently walked out of a Columbia University Jewish center during an event featuring a well-known Israeli reporter while an anti-Israel mob demonstrated outside the building last night.
Police say they’ve identified the remains found last month in Burden Pond Preserve: Bethlehem resident Amanda King, 37, who has been missing from Glenville since November 2013.
More than 50 pro-Palestine protestors, many draped in keffiyehs and wearing face masks, chanted in the rain outside the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall last night in protest of the 7:30 p.m. performance by Matisyahu, a pro-Israel artist.
A Schenectady landlord faces a misdemeanor charge for allegedly choking activist Alexis “Lexis” Figuereo, a co-founder of Saratoga Black Lives Matter, during an altercation inside an apartment last month, according to court documents.
The Albany Med Health System is threatening to stop accepting insurance from patients covered by the Albany-based insurer CDPHP amid its ongoing dispute over as much as $50 million in expected payments.
The City of Saratoga Springs’ longtime deputy Commissioner for Public Works, Joe O’Neill, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment to an official misconduct charge Thursday morning in city court.
A Lark Street doughnut shop was hit by gunfire Wednesday night, triggering a large police response on one of the city’s busiest streets.
A town resident is suing after she says officials blocked vehicle access to her property on the shores of Ballston Lake by putting up road guardrails.
In the wake of Trump’s election win, the comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi have moved abroad to their new home in southwest England.
The former California residents left the country because they were “very disillusioned” with Trump’s victory in the presidential election and were determined to “get the hell out,” a source told TMZ.
Jussie Smollett’s conviction was overturned yesterday by the Illinois Supreme Court in connection with the staged 2019 “hate hoax” attack against him.
For the second time in three years, Aaron Judge turned a historic season into an MVP trophy. The Yankees captain was named the 2024 AL MVP yesterday, an expected result after he led the majors in nearly every major offensive category.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
