Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
I am sitting in my local Starbucks – the one I frequent so often that the staff has my drink ready for me before I even get to the cash register, sort of like Norm in “Cheers” – and they have switched over from cherry foam iced matcha lattes to pecan and pumpkin everything.
It feels too soon for me, but Starbucks is actually a late holdout to the seasonal switch. Dunkin’s fall menu, which features all the pumpkin spice beverages and food offerings, went live a week ago (on Aug. 20).
No matter how much we might want to deny it, it’s impossible to ignore. Fall is truly almost here. The other day, I went to my local farmstand to replenish my stock of stone fruit and berries and found instead barrels of apples awaiting me – as well as a display of gourds. The apple cider doughnuts have yet to make an appearance, but I’m sure that day is coming in the not-too-distant future.
Even though we live in a time when one can acquire pretty much anything at any time, regardless of the growing season, the truth is that some produce just doesn’t taste all that great when it has been grown hundreds of miles away. Tomatoes, for sure, fall into this category, along with strawberries, raspberries, and peaches.
Thankfully for us fruit lovers, there is one year-round staple that travels well and is fairly reliable in terms of quality: Bananas.
Bananas are America’s most popular and frequently purchased fruit. This probably has something to do with their convenience, portability, affordability (more on this in a moment), availability, and versatility. They are a good source of Vitamins B6 and C and magnesium and a quick and easy carbohydrate source for athletes everywhere.
Also, they taste great. I have yet to meet someone who truly HATES bananas, though I’m sure now that I’ve written these words someone will be contradicting me.
The average American consumes 27 pounds of bananas every year (that’s a total of 6.4 billion pounds and about 90 per person, in case you were struggling with the math). They are also the world’s most consumed fruit, with some 100 billion eaten annually, making them the fourth most important global food crop.
That’s a lot, true. But it’s not nearly enough to put us in the top spot in terms of banana consumption by country. That honor goes to India, which collectively consumed more than 54 million pounds of the fruit in 2021, followed by China, Indonesia, and Brazil. India is also the world’s largest banana producer, accounting for about a quarter of the output.
Like so many good things these days, bananas face a number of threats, most notably something called Topical Race 4 (TR4), also known as Panama Disease, the presence of which has been accelerating rapidly, prompting fears of an imminent banana pandemic.
Specifically the most popular and widely-available type of banana – the Cavendish – faces the biggest threat from this fungus, in part because it is a clone of single plant. What does that mean? Basically, Cavendish bananas are more or less genetically pure, which leaves them more vulnerable to disease. This threat isn’t entirely new, and scientists are racing to find, if not a cure, then at least a prevention mechanism.
There is cause for optimism here, as this isn’t the world’s first rodeo when it comes banana extinction. Back in the 1950s, the Cavendish replaced the Gros Michel banana, which was devastated by none other than the Panama fungal infection. In other words, everything old is new again.
Today is National Banana Lovers Day, which is not to be confused with National Banana Day (April 25), or National Banana Split Day (Aug. 25, not sure how I missed this one earlier in the week). I personally will be celebrating with berries on my oatmeal. Sorry, bananas, as long as there are fresh raspberries and/or blueberries to be had, you’re still playing second fiddle.
I’ll be back with you as soon as the weather turns cold for good. And, for the record, my banana vehicle of choice is not actually oatmeal. It’s banana bread. Someday, I will actually unlock the code of making my homemade version actually TASTE like banana.
It will be partly cloudy today with a chance of rain. The high temperature will be somewhere in the low 70s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump said that his administration will seek the reinstatement of the death penalty for murder cases in the nation’s capital, a policy that he has wanted to expand nationwide.
“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,” Trump said during a lengthy Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Trump declared that he had unlimited power as president to deploy the National Guard in any state, after musing whether people would call him a dictator for doing so.
In a televised cabinet meeting that lasted more than three hours, Trump attacked Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, who has pushed back against the president’s threat to deploy troops in Chicago in an expansion of the crackdown on crime he is conducting in DC.
A federal judge dismissed an unusual Trump administration lawsuit against every federal judge in Maryland over a standing order that limits the government’s ability to quickly deport immigrants.
Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook is defying Trump’s threat to oust her as part of his effort to take control over the influential central bank.
Cook, the first Black woman to sit on the bank’s board, refused to step down and says the president doesn’t have the power to fire her.
Democrats continued their winning streak in key special elections this year with another victory in a contested state Senate seat in Iowa. A Democrat in Georgia also appears headed for a runoff against a Republican in a deeply conservative district.
The Democratic Party’s divisions over Israel and the war in Gaza were on messy display at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday, as members weighed just how far to go in reprimanding Israel for its conduct on the battlefield.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar at the State Department today, according to Rubio’s public schedule – the same day that the White House is expected to hold a “large meeting” on Gaza, chaired by Trump.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said that Washington expected Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory to be settled by the end of the year.
“We’re going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year,” Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News. He said the plan would reflect Trump’s “humanitarian motives,” but declined to offer specifics.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s popularity has grown among Democratic voters in recent months as he has emerged as a possible top contender for the party’s 2028 presidential nominee, according to a new poll that was released yesterday.
Cracker Barrel is reversing course, announcing that it would scrap the new logo it introduced after facing backlash over the rebrand.
“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain,” the company said in a statement.
“Congratulations ‘Cracker Barrel’ on changing your logo back to what it was. All of your fans very much appreciate it. Good luck into the future. Make lots of money and, most importantly, make your customers happy again,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s war on shoplifting is starting to show results — just as Trump is using the weight of the federal government to crack down on urban crime in blue states.
Speaking on a street corner in Harlem, the governor touted the 12% year-on-year drop in retail theft cases in the Big Apple, and a 5% drop statewide, following a surge of such incidents hitting New York in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hochul pushed Trump not to send the National Guard to New York in a recent phone call, highlighting the city’s decline in crime, she revealed yesterday.
New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries again yesterday as the Brooklyn Democrat continues to hold back his endorsement.
The Mamdani campaign said the hour-and-a-half meeting, which took place in a church, was productive and thoughtful.
Mamdani’s mayoral campaign said that he doesn’t believe in getting rid of all misdemeanor crimes — as the candidate tried to distance himself from the radical national Democratic Socialists of America platform.
A super PAC backing the re-election of Mayor Eric Adams is taking aim at Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — blasting the pair of City Hall hopefuls for being soft-on-crime in new digital ads.
A state Supreme Court justice has rejected Cuomo’s efforts to continue litigating a case in which a former aide who accused him of groping her during an encounter at the governor’s mansion in 2020 had recently agreed to a $450,000 settlement.
A New York judge tore into Cuomo for using millions in taxpayer cash to defend himself against sexual harassment allegations — as the now-mayoral candidate tries to launder his tarnished public image.
With just about two months until Election Day, the New York City Campaign Finance Board rolled out its debate schedule for citywide candidates and WNYC will be among the groups hosting the televised contests.
Adams has shelved the city’s controversial move to eliminate dozens of free parking spaces on the Upper West Side after locals caused an uproar.
A 13-year-old brain-cancer survivor famously sworn in as a Secret Service agent by Trump notched another impressive lawman title Tuesday — New York City’s deputy mayor for public safety.
Federal judges in Brooklyn formally appointed Joseph Nocella Jr. as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, avoiding a potentially fractious fight of the sort that has gripped other offices in and around New York.
A Transport Workers Union big has gotten the boot for trying to improperly punish an alleged philandering bus-driver rep, the TWU said.
A Bronx apartment complex is being evaluated for Legionella growing in its plumbing system after multiple residents tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease, a form of pneumonia caused by the harmful bacteria, city health officials confirmed.
In February, a woman told the police that a delivery man had exposed himself to her in a Manhattan building. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall. Two months later, evidence shows, the police arrested the wrong man. He was 6-foot-2.
Public payphones have shown up in Brooklyn and Manhattan as part of a promotion for director Darren Aronofsky’s new film “Caught Stealing.”
Critics bashed a Long Island school’s secret “backroom deal” with state officials to rebrand its sports team to comply with a controversial Native American logo ban — saying the community should keep fighting.
Tony Southampton has banned short-term home rentals after crabby locals complained that weekend warriors’ all-night “ragers” were keeping them up too late and making the ritzy beachside village unbearable.
The historic former American Stock Exchange in Manhattan is raining potentially deadly debris on the street — earning its billionaire owner a criminal summons over its lame sidewalk shed, according to the city.
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) has closed its welcome center on Route 73 between Keene and Lake Placid, its executive director said. It will not open for the cross-country ski season this year.
The Albany International Airport has a rodent problem, and some of its restaurants’ health inspection records aren’t publicly available – as they should be.
A ruptured municipal water pipe forced the City of Troy to close a portion of Ingalls Avenue yesterday.
The pop star Taylor Swift and the football player Travis Kelce are engaged after two years of dating.
“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” the couple captioned a joint post on Instagram announcing the news on Tuesday, adding a dynamite emoji and a snippet of Ms. Swift’s song “So High School.”
Ed Kelce, Travis’s father, discussed the couple in a televised interview and said the engagement happened a few weeks ago in the garden of Travis’s home in Lee’s Summit, Mo.
Swift showed off her new sparkler in a series of photos announcing the big news. Her dazzling ring is a massive Old Mine Brilliant Cut diamond, a rectangular-cut diamond with antique references.
Trump has changed his tune on “terrific” Taylor Swift upon hearing the popstar he once claimed to hate had gotten engaged. “I wish ’em a lot of luck,” Trump said to a chorus of laughter after a reporter broke the news.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
