Good morning, we made it to Friday!
One of the best things about being married, in my opinion, is the ability to eat off someone else’s plate without having to ask. Perhaps this isn’t the sort of relationship you have. I know a lot of people who are grossed out by the thought of having their plate violated by someone else’s fork – or, worse yet, their fingers. I am most definitely not one of these people.
I happen to have the added bonus of being married to someone who doesn’t like a lot of the things I find enjoyable, and also doesn’t have the biggest appetite (unless cookies or other sweets are involved, which is a different story entirely). Over the decade-plus that we have been together, he has resigned himself to the fact that I will be steeling food off his plate.
Sometimes, he pre-empts my thievery by simply handing over the items that he knows I’ll try to pilfer. This extends to pickles.
I am a big fan of all things pickled. I did grow up on Jewish deli – a gustatory genre in which pickles figure prominently (you get them for free on the table in a true NYC delicatessen, along with coleslaw, which is another thing my husband automatically hands over).
My maternal grandmother, may she rest in peace, specialized in making a lot of traditional Jewish foods, including extra sours. She kept us well stocked and I have fond memories of fishing them out with my fingers (sorry, not sorry; arguably the brine was disinfecting agent) and ate them as after-school snacks.
Pickles are having a moment, thanks in no small part to the whole “fermented foods are healthy for your gut” movement. (Side note: Some, but not all, pickles are fermented: those made in salt brine encourage lactic acid (good) bacteria to grow, creating beneficial probiotics, while “quick” pickles made with vinegar do not).
Today is National Pickle Day, which was created by the Pickle Packers Association (truly, there is a trade group for everything), which was established in 1893 and is now know as Pickle Packers International (PPI). According to the PPI website, it serves “salters, green shippers, brokers, growers, seed companies, ingredient and equipment manufacturers, packaging suppliers, and those who provide goods and services to the industry.”
So, 132 years is a long time. But the practice of pickling as a means of preserving and stretching food has been around for a lot longer than that. The earliest known pickling occurred more than 4,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The cucumber pickle, which is perhaps the best known variety, started in India, where the vegetable was first cultivated.
Pickles were popular among seagoing ships, as they provided a long-lived source of Vitamin C, helping to stave off the dreaded scurvy. Christopher Columbus reportedly rationed pickles to his crew members, and went so far as to cultivate cucumbers in Haiti in order to restock his pickle stores for the trip back to Europe.
Pickles were brought to the U.S. by Dutch farmers who grew cucumbers in – where else? – Brooklyn! The pickle barrel business proliferated, particularly on the Lower East Side, where Jewish immigrants who relocated from Eastern Europe brought with them the tradition of kosher dills.
And hence, we’ve come full circle in this post.
The weather outlook has been hard to nail down, with the forecast changing from day to day, if not hour to hour – not terribly surprising for upstate, of course. Today is shaping up to be the worst of the lot, with clouds and rain and/or snow showers early in the day that switch over to mainly snow showers in the afternoon. Temperatures will top out in the low 40s.
The clouds will continue into Saturday with more showers throughout the day. Temperatures will again be in the low-to-mid 40s. Sunday will be dry (maybe?) and mostly cloud with the possibility of some sun sneaking into the picture during the afternoon and temperatures again reaching in the mid-40s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote on releasing the Jeffery Epstein files after attempts to press two female members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.
Trump hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the convicted sex offender, but he’s doing a great job of looking suspicious. And that could be a political problem in and of itself.
Already a convicted sex offender, Epstein was still actively shopping his political and financial acumen with major power players on the international stage in 2018, according to messages in the records released by the House Oversight Committee this week.
The emails show that Epstein’s staff kept him apprised of Trump’s air travel as it related to his own transportation – and that the late sex trafficker kept up with news about his former friend years after their relationship soured.
The BBC apologized to Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021 but said it had not defamed him, rejecting the basis for his $1 billion lawsuit threat.
The corporation said the edit had given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” and said it would not show the 2024 programme again.
The Trump administration is preparing broad exemptions to certain tariffs in an effort to ease elevated food prices that have provoked anxiety for American consumers, according to three people briefed on the actions.
Senate Republicans are deeply divided over how to handle rising health insurance premiums now that the longest government shutdown in American history is over.
The U.S. military killed another four people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics by sea, Pentagon officials said, in a strike that brings the known death toll in the administration’s lethal campaign to 80 since early September.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a post on X that the U.S. operation in Latin America — which has targeted alleged drug smugglers — will be known as “Operation Southern Spear.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she’s giving $10,000 bonuses to “exemplary” Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents following the end of the government shutdown.
The department claimed that since the president took office, DHS has saved taxpayers $13 billion and will use that money for bonuses.
Trump has tapped Paul Ingrassia to be deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration (GSA), less than a month after Ingrassia withdrew his nomination as head of the Office of Special Counsel over racist comments.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is catching the ire of climate activists and lawmakers after a hat trick of fossil fuel-friendly moves, including reaching a deal to delay a law aimed at electrifying new building construction that was set to take effect in January.
The New York leader faced attacks from both sides of the aisle this week when her administration revealed it was stalling the implementation of the All-Electric Buildings Act that includes a controversial ban on installing gas stoves in newly built homes.
Environmental groups, advocates and some lawmakers are viewing the actions as a sign that Hochul is changing her views on renewable energy and climate change mitigation.
Hochul created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest when her administration approved permits benefiting two recent clients of a large law firm that employs her husband, environmental activists and two New York State lawmakers said this week.
Progressive lawmakers and environmental advocates were fuming one day after it was revealed that New York state will pause its all-electric building law pending a court decision in a lawsuit brought by gas and construction trade groups.
John Sarcone, the Trump administration’s hand-picked federal prosecutor in Albany, personally requested subpoenas be served on AGLetitia James’ office as part of an investigation into cases she brought against Trump’s businesses and the NRA.
James threatened to take Condé Nast to court over the “Fired Four” this week during a union rally outside the company’s World Trade Center headquarters.
Hochul’s big jobs-creating win is slogging down just as her 2026 re-election bid gets underway, as the Micron chip factory lags into the future.
New York state Assemblymember Amy Paulin and a coalition of faith leaders and elected officials held a rally in Westchester to urge Hochul to sign a bill legalizing medically assisted suicide for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live.
Hochul and mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani are facing a political high-wire act next year, one that will test whether a moderate Democrat can govern alongside a democratic socialist as their party tears itself apart. Pitfalls are numerous for both Democrats.
Mamdani met with Hochul at her Manhattan office for about 90 minutes yesterday. Representatives for the mayor-elect and the governor said the two discussed affordability and public safety issues, among other issues.
The governor’s office said in a statement that “both agreed that New York is safe and that a federal surge would not improve public safety,” especially with crime rates dropping in the city.
They also discussed Trump potentially sending National Guard troops to patrol city streets or launching an immigration enforcement surge, according to a meeting readout provided by Mamdani’s transition team and Hochul’s office.
According to Mamdani’s team, the mayor-elect and Hochul spoke at length about the possibility of an expanded federal presence in New York, including potential surges of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the National Guard.
Come Jan. 1, Mamdani will see which way the winds of Albany are blowing. Will tailwinds propel — or will northerly headwinds off the Hudson buffet — the young mayor?
Mamdani stopped by a child care center in Brooklyn yesterday to outline one of his biggest campaign promises: universal child care.
Mamdani has spoken with several Democratic governors — seeking their insight for how to navigate certain aspects of governing and best deal with Trump.
On the eve of Mamdani’s election, an assistant commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs joined a wave of commenters smearing the young Muslim candidate as a terror sympathizer.
On the heels of a resounding rejection in the Nov. 4 elections, Republicans have found a silver lining: a new Democratic bogeyman in Mamdani.
Mamdani held a secretive meeting with far-left Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday — a sitdown that was captured by an eagle-eyed New Yorker whose office is across from the mayor-elect’s headquarters.
Warren boasted about the meeting with the Democratic socialist and Big Tech antagonist Lina Khan, the co-chair of Mamdani’s transition team, on Instagram. “Tax the rich. Billionaire tears not pictured,” Warren captioned the post of the beaming trio.
Mamdani wants to deploy social workers instead of police officers to respond to 911 calls — but the controversial plan has already been operating in the Big Apple and is failing.
Manhattan rents soared near record highs the month before Mamdani won the city’s mayoral election. The median rent for all new Manhattan apartment leases was $4,600 in October – up 7.1% from the previous year and 1.1% on a monthly basis.
Mayor-elect Mamdani’s transition team met with their counterparts in outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ administration Wednesday — as their bosses respectively trade barbs.
City Councilman Erik Bottcher announced his candidacy yesterday for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s Manhattan congressional seat — joining a bevy of wannabes in the Democratic primary including Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg.
Bottcher joins an increasingly crowded primary field that already includes a Kennedy scion, a Nadler protégé, a tech-focused state assemblyman and a 26-year-old upstart. More potential candidates are still circling.
Two teenagers created a website that combines public data with real estate listings, allowing users to search for below-market and rent-stabilized apartments — something the grown-ups who run New York City have never managed to do.
The cost of a single trip on the PATH train is expected to rise by $1 over the next four years, Port Authority officials announced.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the increase and a timetable for restoring daily service on all its lines for the first time in 25 years.
Lawyers for Luigi Mangione are asking police and prosecutors either to prove that Mangione’s mother told them the Midtown shooting of a health care executive “might be something that she could see him doing,” or correct the record.
Bill de Blasio’s latest fling is staying at a shabby South Tucson motel festooned with “free Palestine” posters and placards in a run-down part of town not far from city hall.
A slick thief made off with nearly $10,000 in baseball and Pokemon cards from a SoHo shop owned by NFL legend Tom Brady, cops said.
New York students must learn about climate change and environmental stewardship, the Board of Regents has decided.
Fresh off GOP gains on Long Island, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman visited the state Capitol during an upstate tour yesterday as he weighs a gubernatorial primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Blakeman blasted the state GOP boss for saying there’d be no primary for governor – warning the race could turn into a Kamala Harris-style “coronation.”
Mayor Kathy Sheehan will leave office on Jan. 1, but she isn’t leaving the city. Sheehan briefly discussed her plans during a news conference inside her office with Mayor-elect Dorcey Applyrs to discuss the transition between the two administrations.
Police are investigating the conduct of a police officer who was caught on video punching a woman in the face as he attempted to take her into custody earlier this month outside the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.
A 34-year-old is expected to face murder charges after a Walmart employee he allegedly struck with his car died weeks later in the hospital.
The 45-year-old former CEO of Prime Capital Ventures pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, admitting he masterminded a scheme to steal tens of millions of dollars in cash deposits from commercial loan clients between 2022 and 2024.
A faction of three Republican Albany County legislators is leaving the Republican and Conservative conference to form a Conservative caucus.
The day after the election, nonprofits received an unsigned letter from Saratoga Springs City Hall informing them that their funding could be eliminated from the city’s budget next year.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
