Good morning, it’s Shrove Tuesday, AKA Fat Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras, AKA Carnival, AKA the last day of free wheeling fun and festivities and feasting before the somber abstinence period of Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter.
This day is also sometimes referred to as Pancake Day (not to be confused with one of the two National Pancake Days – one of which was declared by the pancake house IHO – that are observed throughout the year), due to the tradition of eating the fluffy, indulgent and delicious cakes as a way to use up no-no-for-Lent ingredients like butter, sugar, and eggs.
The pre-Lenten Catholic celebration stretches across an entire week in some countries, where it’s called Carnival, ostensibly from the medieval Latin phrases “carnem levare” or “carnelevarium,” which mean (more or less) “bye-bye meat”, due to the tradition of abstaining from meat consumption during Lent.
On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Catholics age 14 and up are supposed to eat one full meal and two smaller meals, and on every Friday during Lent, refrain from eating red meat and poultry. Hence, the popularity of Fish Fry Fridays. These practices are intended to be a form of penance that honors the suffering Jesus experienced on the cross.
For these purposes, Catholics define “fish” as salt and freshwater fish, shellfish, amphibians, and reptiles. That means that frogs, shrimp, oysters, and turtles are A-OK. Beavers, capybaras and alligators make the cut, too, but if you can bring yourself to eat something as adorable as a capybara I’m not sure we can be friends.
Also not prohibited are the non-flesh products of mammals and birds, such as dairy and eggs.
Abstaining from meat on Fridays is one of the oldest Christian traditions and was once required not just during Lent, but on every Friday all year long, but the U.S. Bishops have decided that outside of Lent, Catholics can choose another penance that is meaningful to them.
As for Mardi Gras – the last hurrah before Lent – it is, in my minds, synonymous with New Orleans, which has a long and deeply complicated tradition of celebrating. There are krewes, balls, floats, beads, flashing, masks and king cake. All of which you can do a deep dive on here, compliments of what appears to be the city’s official Mardi Gras website.
This year’s Mardi Gras is taking place under the shadow of the New Year’s Day terror attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people and injured dozens of others. Security along parade routes will be unprecedented, and many things that used to be acceptable have been banned (confetti and confetti launchers, for example, as well as barbecue grills, mylar balloons, tents with sides, and ladders over 6 feet tall).
The annual celebration has been deemed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a Special Event Assessment Rating 1, meriting federal interagency support.
Mardi Gras is not, however, the first test of New Orleans’ ability to host high-profile events in the wake of the attack. Just a day after it, in fact, the city hosted the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game, and then less than a month later – on Feb. 11 – the Super Bowl took place. Both were held at the Caesars Superdome, and both went off without a hitch.
Here’s hoping everything goes according to plan, and people enjoy themselves safely and respectfully.
It’s going to be warmer today, with temperatures heading into the mid-40s. Skies will be overcast, but the rain appears likely to hold off until tomorrow.
In the headlines…
China imposed tariffs on a broad variety of U.S. food exports early yesterday, responding swiftly to the Trump administration’s latest tariffs and escalating a global dispute that has rattled governments and international trade.
China also added 10 U.S. companies on their version of the Entity List, ostensibly for activities in Taiwan. The companies appear to be mostly defense and intelligence related so they’re unlikely to have to much of a footprint inside Mainland China.
Mexico and Canada, the two other countries targeted by the Trump tariffs that took effect just after midnight, had yet to respond.
For American families, the likely result of the tariffs is higher prices nearly everywhere they turn — in grocery aisles, at car dealerships, at electronics stores and at the pump.
President Donald Trump yesterday directed his administration to “pause” military aid to Ukraine after the contentious meeting in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.
A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal and wants Zelenskyy “committed” to that goal. The official added that the U.S. was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”
“I do think that there was just a certain sense of — there was a lack of respect. There was a certain sense of entitlement,” Vice President JD Vance said during his first interview since the dustup in the Oval Office between him, Trump and Zelenskyy.
Trump’s rancorous threat to abandon Ukraine is stoking support for a long-debated proposal to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine and finance its reconstruction.
Trump has been blocking off an hour or so of time most days this past week to prepare for his joint address to Congress, (not a State of the Union), which will take place this evening in Washington, D.C.
White House officials said the speech, themed “The Renewal of the American Dream,” will feature four main sections: accomplishments thus far; economic achievements; additional funding for border security; and plans for peace around the globe.
Trump is expected to boast about his assault on the federal bureaucracy and his efforts to upend global relationships, even as his administration faces lawsuits over his domestic agenda and Europe rebukes him over his treatment of Ukraine.
The event comes just ahead of a key federal funding deadline on March 14, at which point the federal government will run out of money. While Trump may not ask Congress to do much, he will likely encourage it to take action in funding the government.
Top appropriators are still in search of a deal to fund the government with 10 days until a shutdown deadline, as talk in the Senate turn to two possibilities for stopgap spending bills.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries brushed off calls for Democrats to boycott Trump’s address. “It’s the people’s House. It’s the House of Representatives,” he said on CNN. Instead, Democrats are inviting fired federal workers as their guests.
Jeffries called for Democrats to have a “strong, determined and dignified” presence at Trump’s speech. “The decision to attend the Joint Session is a personal one and we understand that members will come to different conclusions,” he wrote.
The Pentagon is sending up to 5,050 additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border even as unlawful border crossings have sharply fallen in recent weeks.
The Pentagon, in initial work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has found some $80 million in what it’s deemed wasteful spending, according to the building’s top spokesperson.
In a video posted to X yesterday, Press Secretary Sean Parnell read from an unreleased list detailing funding devoted largely to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and climate change research.
Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has been quietly pushing to present evidence against Senator Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to a federal grand jury over comments he made about Supreme Court justices in 2020.
The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York field office said in an email yesterday that he had been forced out of his job, following clashes with Justice Department officials over Trump administration directives.
The veteran agent, James E. Dennehy, was told Friday to retire from his role leading the F.B.I.’s largest field office, delivering another blow to the senior ranks of the bureau. “I was not given a reason for this decision,” he wrote.
“I’ve been told many times in my life, ‘When you find yourself in a hole, sometimes it’s best to quit digging.’ Screw that. I will never stop defending this joint. I’ll just do it willingly and proudly from outside the wire,” Dennehy added.
Dennehy’s removal comes a month after he urged his employees to “dig in” after the Trump administration removed senior FBI leaders and requested the names of all agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
The Trump administration has vowed to kill congestion pricing in New York City. Now officials have taken the unusual step of making a man-on-the-street video to demonstrate what they say is public opposition to the program.
Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, posted the 26-second video on X on Friday. It starts with a question onscreen: “What do NYC workers think about congestion pricing?”
Gov. Kathy Hochul told NPR’s Morning Edition that she will “fight back hard” against the administration’s demands, and added that it’s up to Democratic governors to be the “firewall” as Republicans in Congress weigh slashing social safety net programs.
Government workers impacted by widespread layoffs and buyouts across federal agencies could find a warm welcome in New York’s public sector, Hochul said.
The state contributed $50 million to a failed program to build 150 legal cannabis dispensaries. Hochul’s plan to recover the money has stirred concern.
Across the state, as wildcat strikes by corrections officers wore on for a 15th straight day, their toll on the men and women who live and work in New York’s prisons was becoming clearer. At least seven prisoners have died since the strikes began on Feb. 17.
State Police are investigating the death of a 22-year-old inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility who had been beaten by multiple correction officers on Saturday, according to inmates and their family members.
The state Department of Corrections has begun firing and fining corrections officers who have not returned to work as an unlawful prison strike enters its third week.
Dubbed the “Climate Resilient New York Act,” a new bill being pushed by Senate Democrats would add an “Office of Resilience” to the state’s executive branch, consolidating the state response to floods, storms and wildfires.
Two top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have begun an investigation into the Justice Department’s request to drop federal criminal charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.
The lawmakers wrote a letter to AG Pam Bondi, accusing the DOJ of trying to cover up a quid pro quo in which the charges against Adams would be dropped in return for his assistance to the Trump administration in implementing its immigration policies.
It’s an illustration of just how far Adams has fallen out of favor among fellow Democrats as he faces a tough primary reelection bid in June.
Adams largely — though not completely — refrained from criticizing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday, two days after he entered the race with sweeping criticisms over how New York is being run.
When asked about Cuomo’s pledge to “save” NYC, Adams said – “yes I do believe we need to be saved from him.”
In declaring his candidacy for mayor of New York, Cuomo painted a picture of a city in trouble, and he blamed a central culprit: the failed leadership of the Democratic Party, of which he has been a fixture for most of his adult life.
Adams released social media rules to mayoral staffers last week, seeking to provide clarity in an area where his administration has faced controversy over previous statements that have violated city policies.
Two New York City congress members are blaming “chaos” at the federal level for slowing key rental assistance payments to landlords of roughly 100,000 low-income tenants in the five boroughs.
A federal judge overseeing the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City is weighing two distinct proposals on how to fix the city’s troubled and violent lockups.
Winston Nguyen, who taught math at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, was accused of soliciting lewd images from students. He pleaded guilty to a felony and five misdemeanors.
Grei Mendez, owner of a Bronx daycare where fentanyl sickened three toddlers and killed a fourth, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty last year to possessing and conspiring to distribute narcotics resulting in serious injury and death.
New York authorities said a “cybercrime crew” digitally swiped more than 900 event tickets owned by StubHub customers — mostly for the highly coveted Taylor Swift “Eras” tour — then resold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas wants to rename the New York strip steak the Texas strip. Noting that Texas leads the nation in heads of cattle, Patrick announced on X that he was working with the State Senate on a resolution that would officially rebrand the cut.
State Assemblyman Robert Smullen has proposed a bill allowing memorial signs to be posted where victims were killed in vehicle crashes.
If passed, several memorial signs could be posted at the intersection of Route 7 and Hickory Road in Niskayuna, including one in honor of Smullen’s 14-year-old son AJ, who died last year after being hit by a car.
The mayor of Albany sent her support to the mayor of Bucha, Ukraine — Albany’s sister city — in the aftermath of Friday’s explosive meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy.
A second charge in the Niskyauna free speech vs. hate crime case has been dropped against a man who was accused of leaving a racist voicemail for then-town Supervisor Jaime Puccioni over the summer.
Jay-Z filed a lawsuit against the anonymous woman who withdrew her rape lawsuit against him last month, asserting that she and her lawyers knew the allegations were false but proceeded with the claim anyway.
Carl Dean, an asphalt paver who met his future wife, Dolly Parton, outside a Nashville laundromat more than six decades ago and quietly championed her as she rose to superstardom, died yesterday. He was 82.
Parton announced the death of her husband, a private man who preferred to avoid the spotlight, in a statement shared on social media. No cause was given.
The Academy Awards drew 18 million viewers on Sunday, ABC said, citing Nielsen data. That is an 8 percent drop from the 19.5 million who watched last year. The audience decline ends a three-year streak when Oscar ratings had been on the rise.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
