Good morning, it’s Tuesday, and we’re easing back into the post-summer grind with a four-day workweek. That’s about the best spin I can put on the change of the seasons, so we’re just going to go with it.
Over the weekend, I wore tights and a long-sleeve shirt on a run for the first time in months.
Granted, it was 50 degrees at 6 a.m. and still well into the 70s by the time I got to the Schaghticoke Fair, where I got my fill of cows, goats, sheep, horses, ducks, and bunnies.
I didn’t ride any rides, but did have a lovely lunch provided for a comparatively reasonable price by the 4H kids, whose handiwork and animal husbandry I really enjoyed viewing. It’s nice to see the agricultural piece of the fair – historically, the reason why fairs were created, as we’ve previously discussed in this space – still lives.
Anyway, the point is that I am slowly coming to accept that fall is here. (I know, I keep writing variations on this theme, but it’s a process). The change the seasons always makes me melancholy – even winter to spring, which should be a happy time, leaves me down in the dumps. The passing of time and all that.
Interestingly, this is a big day for the way we mark time – Calendar Adjustment Day, which marks the day in 1752 when Great Britain and its colonies (this was pre-Revolutionary War) switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.
To make the two calendars match up, 11 days needed to be skipped, so a week and a half was pretty much just eliminated in 1752, and everyone jumped from Sept. 2 straight to Sept. 11.
The skipping, accomplished through passage by Parliament of the Calendar (New Style) Act of 1750, brought the UK and its colonies in line with the Gregorian Calendar, which was already in use elsewhere in Europe – notably by France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
This seems kind of crazy when you think about it, and wasn’t terribly popular at the time. The so-called “lost” 11 days was an issue in the 1754 election campaign between the Whigs and the Tories, though reports of civil unrest – an event riots – by people who mistakenly thought the change would shorten their lives by a week-and-a-half have since been debunked as an urban myth.
The Gregorian Calendar is now internationally accepted and used for civil purposes in most countries around the globe, but when it started is pretty much completely arbitrary, and it’s not even the most accurate calendar out there – that distinction goes to the Iranian Calendar, which requires fewer corrections in more years. (Click here if you want to go down the rabbit hole on that).
The Gregorian Calendar was designed to align with the solar year. It was the brain child of an Italian scientist named Aloysus Lilius, who developed the system that was formally introduced by Pope Gregory XIII t in 1582. The Pope’s problem was that the Julian Calendar had become wildly inaccurate over time, with a 10-day discrepancy that caused major holidays – like Easter, for example – to fall out of sync with the Spring Equinox.
It turns out that the Julian Calendar miscalculated the length of the solar year, which, over time resulted in significant errors when matching up with the seasons. Lilius’ version is better, but still not entirely accurate, as it’s off by about 26 seconds, creating a discrepancy of a few hours since its introduction hundreds of years ago.
Regardless of what day it is, the actual hours of daylight are undeniably fewer than just a few weeks ago and we are rocketing toward fall and then winter. So enjoy the (limited) sunlight while it’s still here. Another lovely early fall/late summer day is on tap, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures flirting with 80 degrees.
In the headlines…
Progressive activists, Democratic leaders and ordinary voters gathered in crowds large and small around the country yesterday to protest the Trump administration and voice support for workers on the Labor Day holiday.
Hundreds of events were organized by labor groups, local activists and Democratic Party officials, adding to a drumbeat of demonstrations in recent months.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, 78, a New York Democrat who has been one of Congress’s leading liberal voices for three decades, will not seek re-election next year, heeding a call for generational change roiling his party.
The decision marks the close of a 34-year congressional career that put Nadler at the center of major civil rights battles and three presidential impeachments. It will likely spark a crowded primary fight over a rare open Democratic seat in Manhattan’s heart.
Nadler, who has served in Congress since 1992, cited Joe Biden’s loss last year in his decision. “Watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that,” he told The New York Times.
He acknowledged a need for some of his older colleagues to step aside as well, saying: “A certain amount of change is very helpful, especially when we face the challenge of Trump and his incipient fascism.”
Nadler has been a top target for those trying to take down older incumbents: He was pushed out as House Judiciary Committee ranking member last year and faced a primary challenge from 26-year-old Liam Elkind.
The Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture known as World Liberty Financial had a tepid first day of open-market trading on yesterday, surging in value initially before losing most of those gains.
More than 445,000 federal employees saw their union protections disappear in August, as agencies moved to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order that called for ignoring collective bargaining contracts with nearly one million workers.
Trump announced that he will award former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom a day after Giuliani was seriously injured in a car crash in New Hampshire.
Although rumors circulated that the former mayor was hurt in a targeted attack, his spokesman said Giuliani had pulled over after being flagged down by a woman who was fleeing domestic violence and needed help calling 911.
Giuliani was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon, according to his friend, Arthur L. Aidala. The former mayor spoke to Trump by phone and said, ““I have some healing to do, but I’m otherwise in great shape,” Aidala reported.
Before his car crash, the former mayor of New York City was taking in a minor-league baseball game in Manchester, N.H., a city where he’s been known to enjoy a good cigar.
It’s early in her reelection push, but Gov. Kathy Hochul last week doubled down on criticism of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s accessibility, arguing she is “too scared to face” her constituents as many Republicans forgo in‑person town halls.
A package of three bills to expand prevailing wage mandates that could significantly increase construction wage rates in New York is now on Hochul’s desk for approval or veto.
Hochul and the state Department of Conservation announced Friday that 20 counties across New York, including parts of Long Island, have been issued a drought watch.
A long-standing federal tax credit giving buyers $7,500 off the purchase of a new electric vehicle will end Sept. 30, eliminating a key discount for buyers and challenging New York’s ambitious goals to reduce transportation emissions.
The installation of a transmission cable slated to send Canadian hydropower to New York City at the bottom of Lake Champlain is entering its final stage and is expected to be completed this fall, according to a spokesperson for the project developer.
Even amid mixed messaging around vaccines out of Washington, D.C. and a decline in childhood vaccination rates nationally, New York’s childhood vaccination rates remain strong.
Revelers crowded Eastern Parkway for the 58th annual West Indian American Day Parade, known for its elaborate floats and costumes.
With two months until Election Day, the four leading mayoral candidates honored the tradition of stopping at the West Indian American Day Parade, with the nature of their appearances reflecting their status in the race.
Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa mingled with spectators as they tried to relate to the many people from the Caribbean islands.
Six people were shot along the West Indian American Day Parade route in Brooklyn yesterday evening in a bloody end to the annual celebration that drew hundreds of thousands of revelers and candidates in the crowded mayoral race.
Mamdani’s front-running campaign to lead the nation’s largest city is stoking fear among moderate Democrats that his far-left politics will cost them at the ballot box.
Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic nominee, heads into the post-Labor Day sprint to November with steady momentum from his June primary upset. The most important unresolved issue: Will the socialist face one, two, or three challengers?
Mamdani is getting support from a seasoned NYPD veteran: Rodney Harrison, who served as chief of department, the department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, before his retirement in 2021.
Abigail Spanberger is favored to take back the Virginia governor’s mansion for the Democrats this November. She’s seen as the anti-Mamdani, and her bigger test may be taking back her own party.
Nicole Gelinas: “Mamdani’s opponents are simply reminding voters that it is not just his easy manner and casual promises that make him successful: They have no winning message of their own.”
In the June primary, Mamdani underperformed in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Now he’s trying to better connect with their skeptical older generation.
Hamas-backing Qatar has bankrolled film and stage projects by Mamdani’s Israel-bashing movie-director mom — and one of its royals is now pushing her son’s mayoral bid.
One of Mamdani’s big campaign promises is a five-store network of city-run grocery stores. But experts argue there might be more factors at play that he should consider before making any final plans.
The possibility of a Mamdani mayoralty is causing a “freakout” among wealthy people in the Hamptons.
Cuomo’s brother-in-law and top campaign staffer is being accused of covering up sexual abuse claims against one of his employees — who allegedly groped underage girls at a Brooklyn sports center.
Cuomo wants to hit all the right notes this November — so he sat down with his daughter Mariah to choose a campaign song. The ensuing debate over three New York-themed songs was captured in a playful Instagram video.
Sliwa is pitching a plan to solve New York City’s rat problem — unleashing a strike team of feral cats to hunt down the rodents at public parks and other “hot spots.”
A New York City oversight board petitioned the Department of Justice, hired an outside investigator and issued subpoenas as part of a widening probe into Adams’ campaign fundraising practices.
A man held in a Manhattan police precinct station house on Friday was found unconscious and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, a city official said. He is at least the fourth detainee in city custody to die in a little over a week.
Two male suspects are wanted after three people were wounded in a shooting in the Bronx, New York City police said, amid a surge in gun violence over the past week that prompted additional NYPD officers to be deployed across the borough.
A worker sickened with Legionnaires’ disease by what he believes was a faulty city-owned water cooling tower in Harlem is suing the contractor responsible for maintaining the equipment.
A proposed New York City law that would require large building owners to regularly test for the presence of Legionella bacteria in their water systems — not just in cooling towers — has been stalled in the City Council for nearly two years.
AI chatbox firms would be required to repeatedly remind Big Apple users they’re not dealing with a real person and that the bots can be wrong, under proposed new legislation by Republican Staten Island Councilmember Frank Morano.
The city Department of Education will spend a staggering $42,168 per student this school year, budget experts project, even as enrollment declines and student achievement stalls.
Top executives at the Central Park Conservancy — a tax-exempt group that famously manages and maintains the world-renowned park under a contractual agreement with the city — are raking in mounds of green, records show.
Leaders of an emergency medical services workers union say a years-long contract stalemate and low pay have decimated the spirits and ranks of the FDNY’s ambulance crews, sparking longer wait times for first responders.
A beloved park on state-owned land in Upper Manhattan has been closed for years, with neither the government nor any nonprofit groups willing to step in to operate it.
New York City’s first-ever Curbside Dining Week will launch this week — with nearly three dozen Big Apple eateries putting exclusive discounts and specials on the menu. Curbside Dining Week will take place Sept. 5 through Sept. 12.
Ratepayers in the Capital Region and other areas of New York have seen higher than normal electric bills this year. A National Grid spokesperson attributed recent spikes in rates to a combination of frigid days this winter and a heat wave this summer.
Amtrak began unveiling service on its “NextGen” high-speed Acela trains last week. But for the Capital Region, it appears that high-speed rail will remain elusive for the foreseeable future, in part due to the high cost to electrify the route.
Months after the deteriorating building that hosted a well-known mural of the World War I hero sergeant was torn down, Albany is preparing to include Henry Johnson’s image on the façade of the under-construction West Hill Community Center.
Country singer Bryan Martin called himself a “broken old soul” who is facing mental health challenges in the fallout of a drunken appearance last Friday night at the Schaghticoke Fair.
Starting this month, Watervliet is set to tap assessment services from nearby Cohoes in an effort to trim costs and streamline resources in light of recruitment challenges.
It’s not just dry weather that’s testing the Saratoga Springs water supply. It’s also strained by a leaky system, in which 38,000 water connection points seep an estimated 20% to 24% of its potable water daily, according to the city’s public works chief.
Workers at Target’s warehouses in the towns of Wilton and Florida have such long walks from the entrance of the buildings to their work areas each day that they should be paid for the time, a new lawsuit argues.
The driver of a dump truck that crashed into a home in Brunswick Thursday has been identified as a 74-year-old Wynantskill man.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
