Good morning, it’s Monday and a brand new month is upon us. Welcome to November!
Is it just me, or was yesterday the longest day in recent memory? The falling back an hour was both a blessing and a curse.
On the one hand, it provided a whole extra 60 minutes (or so it seemed) to get things done – and there are always a million things on the “to do” list on Sundays, it seems. By 3 o’clock, I had already fed and walked the dogs, gotten a run in, showered and changed, put out a few work fires, eaten brunch, and run errands. And there was still quite a bit of time left in the day to do more.
I felt pretty damn accomplished.
On the other hand, it was dark by 4:45 p.m., which was depressing because it made me realize that the long, cold, winter is right around the corner and I am truly not ready – either physically or psychologically. Also, I was ready to go to bed by 8 p.m., which was actually 9 p.m. and the usual bedtime for someone who gets up at 5 a.m. on the weekdays.
I had grand plans for dinner, but I ran out of steam as the day waned on and ended up sort of snacking instead of sitting down to a real meal as we usually do on Sunday – pretty much the only evening of the week that I have either the time or inclination to actually cook.
My go-to on days like this is an open-face sandwich. I like my sandwiches with a lot of real estate and an equal ratio of filling to bread. I usually deconstruct a sandwich if I order it in a restaurant, distributing the filling onto the separate slices of bread so that each bite is perfectly proportioned.
Yes, I am aware that this actually undermines the entire purpose of a sandwich, which was originally conceptualized to be an easy-to-eat, handheld meal that one could consume on the go or while doing something else – like, say, gambling.
That, at least, is the legend behind the sandwich origin story. Supposedly, John Montage, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was born on this day in 1718, requested that his servant bring him meat placed between two slices of bread so he could have sustenance without having to get up from the gaming table.
The truth, of course, is that the practice of sandwiching some sort of filling between slices of bread dates back a lot further than the 1700s.
In biblical times, for example, the Rabbi Hillel (in the first century BC this is) famously created a “sandwich” during Passover that was composed of two pieces of matzo filled with bitter herbs and a sweet fruit, nut and wine mixture called charoset to symbolize the juxtaposition of life’s joys and sorrows. Jews still follow this practice at the Seder table today.
During the Middle Ages, stale bread was used in place of crockery as sort of an edible plate that sopped up juices and sauces – the precursor to today’s bread bowl and/or open faced sandwiches. The ancient Romans had a habit of stuffing all manner of fillings – cheese, herbs, butter etc. – between slices of toasted bread.
So maybe the Earl of Sandwich didn’t really lend anything at all to the sandwich except his name, though the longevity of that moniker alone is arguably something to celebrate. I will be doing so by carefully spreading peanut butter on BOTH sides of the bread to ensure every last exposed inch is fully covered. Then, and only then, will I add jelly.
It will be partly cloudy this morning and the clouds will grow thicker as the day progresses, with periods of rain showers developing later in the day. It will be slightly warmer than it has been, with the temperature topping out in the low 60s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump returned to “60 Minutes” yesterday for his first sit-down interview with the program and with CBS News since its parent company earlier this year settled a lawsuit with the president.
Trump tore into Democrats over the ongoing government shutdown, justified his order to restart nuclear weapons testing in the US and defended his administration’s ICE raids in the sometimes-tense interview.
The president aggressively defended his Justice Department’s indictments of some of his political rivals, dismissing questions about whether it amounted to retribution.
CBS News aired about a third of O’Donnell’s sit-down with Trump on TV, and posted most of the rest on YouTube. The network also published the complete transcript of the 90-minute interview online.
Trump posted several messages on Truth Social attacking Democrat candidates ahead of Election Day while his interview on “60 Minutes” aired on CBS.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot send in National Guard soldiers to Portland, Ore., for another five days, until she makes her final decision in the case. But she strongly suggested that she would keep them out permanently.
The nuclear testing ordered by President Trump will not involve nuclear explosions, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said yesterday, adding that the testing would involve “the other parts of a nuclear weapon” to ensure they are working properly.
Two-thirds of the American public say the country has gotten off on the wrong track, according to a new poll from ABC News, The Washington Post and Ipsos.
The survey, conducted last week, shows 67 percent of respondents say the country has “gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track” while 32 percent say things “are generally going in the right direction” in the country.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered an update on the SNAP yesterday and said that benefits could resume this week. “There’s a process that has to be followed, so we’ve got to figure out what the process is,” Bessent said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik has reportedly landed an “all-star” team of New York-bred strategists — including those who helped defeat Gov. Kathy Hochul in past races — and even Dem backers as she prepares to take on the governor.
Hochul was so badly damaged by endorsing Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor that Democrats are champing at the bit to see the wildly unpopular incumbent booted from office, Stefanik claimed.
The governor is twisting herself into knots trying to please Mamdani’s “tax-the-rich” base — while clinging to her vow not to hit New Yorkers’ wallets since endorsing the socialist democrat for mayor.
Hochul was in Buffalo Saturday morning to encourage voters to hit the polls ahead of tomorrow’s election. “You have to gut it out til’ the very end just like Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills do,” she told a packed room of voters at Babeville on Delaware Avenue.
The governor over the weekend condemned the detention of two SUNY Upstate Medical University employees by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said she recently met with the families of the two men and representatives of their unions.
With just days left before voters head to the polls, Hochul visited Syracuse on Saturday to endorse Democratic mayoral candidate Sharon Owens, calling her a “fighter” and a “true champion” for the city.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has rescinded over $125 million in grants to support crime victims after upholding a protest about the bidding process lodged by a downstate hospital.
After New York’s highest court rejected a challenge to a recent law that will move most local elections to even-numbered years, the statute’s opponents are now taking their case to federal court.
The State Republican Committee, along with GOP representatives and party committees from Nassau, Suffolk and Orange Counties, sued Hochul in federal court in another attempt to undo the 2023 law.
Voters across the state are being asked in tomorrow’s election to approve a constitutional amendment retroactively allowing the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex on forest preserve lands.
More than 3,600 New York public school students were physically restrained or isolated in “timeouts” in at least 20,000 incidents last year, including some cases that violated state regulations.
Zohran Mamdani, who holds a lead in polling ahead of New York City’s mayoral election, reportedly received a call Saturday from his fellow Democrat Barack Obama – and the former president offered to be a “sounding board” if his advantage turns into victory.
Mamdani hopes tomorrow to make inroads among Black voters who favored Andrew Cuomo, Latinos who swung to Trump and Jewish voters who may disagree over Israel.
Mamdani went on a bar crawl on Saturday night, visiting as many as six nightclubs in Brooklyn as part of his mayoral campaign.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo told MSNBC on Saturday that in New York, “diversity is our strength, but it can also be a weakness,” even as he said he unequivocally condemned any Islamophobic comments directed at Mamdani.
As Cuomo seeks to gain ground in the New York City mayor’s race, he is trying to splinter some constituencies with natural affinities Mamdani.
Mamdani appeared Saturday with the Rev. Al Sharpton in the predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood of East Harlem, where Sharpton, once a strong Cuomo ally, celebrated him and bashed his opponents for levying attacks rooted in “ugly Islamaphobia.”
Sharpton said: “To act as though every Muslim is a terrorist and connecting (Mamdani) to something as ugly as what happened to us on 9/11 is an insult to the intelligence of all New Yorkers.”
Mamdani and Cuomo accused each other on Saturday of sowing division among New Yorkers as the rancorous three-way mayoral race headed into its homestretch.
Many voters – even some of his supporters – struggle with a fundamental question about Mamdani’s candidacy: Is a 34-year-old state assemblyman ready to lead the nation’s largest city?
About 104,000 New Yorkers cast early ballots on Saturday, bringing the total over eight days to more than 580,000, the City Board of Elections said.
More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast ballots during the nine days of early voting in this year’s pivotal mayoral race, a staggering turnout that puts the contest on track to potentially generate some of the highest local election turnout in modern city history.
Michael Bloomberg donated a combined $5 million to a couple of anti-Mamdani super PACs last week, making the billionaire ex-mayor the general election cycle’s single largest political contributor.
While the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays were battling each other for the World Series trophy, “Saturday Night Live” was focused on the heated electoral contest in the true capital of the world: New York City.
Mamdani took to his official social media accounts and made a tongue-in-cheek remark about Trump’s unexpected backing of Cuomo.
Leaders of a key New York City bodega and restaurant group are taking the rare step of speaking out about the mayoral election and throwing their support behind Cuomo — just days after a rival group got rocked over a Mamdani endorsement.
Mayor Eric Adams called former Cuomo a “snake and a liar” when they were running against each other in the general election for mayor. But since Adams dropped his re-election bid and endorsed Cuomo, they have made peace and even campaigned together.
Cuomo praised Adams on Saturday for rolling out a plan to hire an additional 5,000 police officers — a move aimed at boxing Mamdani before tomorrow’s election.
With polls closing in the 2025 NYC mayoral election in a little more than 48 hours, two new polls showed the race continuing to tighten — but with very different margins between Mamdani and Cuomo.
New York City mayors spent more than two decades fighting to keep a firm grip on America’s largest school system. Mamdani wants to let go.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio cleared up a case of mistaken identity last week, appearing on CNN with his mischievous doppelgänger who had criticized Mamdani, the mayoral front-runner, in a British newspaper.
Uptown Manhattan Councilwoman Carmen De La Rosa pulled out of the City Council speaker race late yesterday and offered support for her Brooklyn colleague Crystal Hudson‘s bid to become the chamber’s next top leader.
The Federal Aviation Administration limited arrivals at Newark Liberty International Airport to just 20 planes per hour yesterday afternoon due to staffing shortages in the control tower, authorities said.
The Interborough Express, a passenger train that would connect New York City’s two most populous boroughs, could be its biggest rail expansion in a century.
Some street snitches are raking in close to $1 million apiece from the city just by recording videos of idling trucks and buses spewing air pollution, prompting local pols to try to curb the staggering payouts.
The head of Amtrak said “wounded pride” is fueling the MTA’s smear campaign against the federal train company after the MTA lost the Penn Station Redesign to Amtrak earlier this year.
According to New York Road Runners, more than 55,000 runners were expected to participate in the TCS New York City Marathon yesterday.
The New York City Marathon made history with a course record set in the women’s competition and the closest race ever on the men’s side, which was decided by a fraction of a second.
Hellen Obiri of Kenya set a women’s course record to win the New York City Marathon while compatriot Benson Kipruto won the men’s race by edging Alexander Mutiso in a photo finish.
Food pantries in the Capital Region are scrambling to find enough resources to feed the community, including tens of thousands of people who rely on federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The Town of Milton’s highway superintendent, who is facing a felony assault charge after he allegedly pushed a man to the ground outside the Whitehouse Restaurant and Bar, resigned from office more than a month ago.
The University at Albany and Virginia Commonwealth University jointly won a $6.5 million grant to establish one of just six federal joint muscular dystrophy research centers in the country.
Town Comptroller Michael Chaires Sr. insists that North Greenbush has stemmed expenditures since a recently surfaced audit report warned of the government becoming “insolvent” if heavy fund balance spending continues.
Albany Academy’s next head of school is completely, unabashedly, in support of coed schools. Michael Turner, who will take over at the academy on July 1, will become head of a school that has separated the genders for most of its history – but no more.
Police have identified the pilot who died in a plane crash not far from Saratoga County Airport on Friday. Fredrick “Fredd” M. Baber, 58, of Port Charlotte, Fla., was piloting the single-engine plane when it crashed as it was taking off from the airport’s runway.
Saying it will make the city’s transit system more nimble, the CEO of CDTA said the organization will suspend services of two Saratoga Springs buses and replace them with two smaller, on-demand FLEX vans by the end of this month.
The Schenectady school board will remain at six members until the May election after members decided they will not fill a seat left open after a member resigned last month.
A Niskayuna man was charged after allegedly posting threats on social media against two Schenectady lawmakers and those who support them.
When John Hendrickson put his giant Adirondack Park retreat up for sale in 2022, he depicted the ideal buyer of the historic Long Lake property as an outdoorsman who wouldn’t open it to the masses, recently shared interviews show. That is not to be.
New York City police are searching for a 20-year-old Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student who was last seen in Queens.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
