Good morning, we made it to Friday.
There’s a lot of feel-good holidays stories in the news this time of year, which is a nice change of pace from the usual litany of doom, gloom, and horror. (Yes, even an ex-journalist can feel overwhelmed by the steady torrent of bad headlines, as much as I appreciate the need to stay informed).
Recently, I watched a story about what is purported to be the world’s largest gingerbread village, located at the Olly Olly Market in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The executive chef responsible for creating anywhere from 700 to more than 1,000 decked-out gingerbread structures annually for the display, said it’s certified by the Guinness Book of World Records
I don’t think I’m going to be making a special trip to see the village, which, from the pictures is charming in a too-much-icing sort of way.
I get my gingerbread fix from the annual Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition sponsored by Mohonk Mountain House. While the submissions there tend to be a lot smaller than the world’s largest gingerbread village, they are generally a lot more delicate and intricate, as a rule.
I am a fan of gingerbread because it falls into the “not too sweet” category of desserts, which might be because it has its roots in ancient recipes that relied on honey or molasses – not refined sugar, which came around years later – and spicy ginger, which has long been used for its medicinal properties.
Gingerbread reportedly originated hundreds of years ago in Greece, though there are records of Chinese recipes as well. In Medieval times, hard ginger cookie that were sometimes gilded with gold leaf and shaped like royalty or animals were regularly on offer at fairs and celebrations. Monks also used it for religious ceremonies, molding it to depict images of saints.
The practice of using gingerbread slabs to build festive houses around the holidays is believed to have begun in Germany in the 1800s, and perhaps became popular in part due to the Brothers Grimm fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, which featured a witch’s house built entirely of sweets. German bakers originally made small decorated houses called lebkuchen out of spiced honey biscuits.
The tradition of creating gingerbread houses for the holidays came to the U.S. via German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania. And, in our usual way, we Americans embraced it and decided to go – BIGGER. The biggest gingerbread house in history was made (again, according to the people at Guinness World Records) by a club in Bryan, Texas in 2013.
The resulting house was actually large enough to walk through – its footprint about the size of a tennis court. Making it required 1,080 ounces of ground ginger, 7,200 eggs, 7,200 pounds of flour, about 3,000 pounds of brown sugar, and more than 23,000 pieces of hard candy. It was estimated to contain close to 36 million calories.
The house, which was built to benefit a local hospital, did have a standard foundation and framework and also a city building permit. But, in order to qualify for its Guinness mention, it needed to be otherwise completely edible.
Today is National Gingerbread House Day, for no reason that I can discern other than that we’re getting close to the holidays and …well, why not?
Today isn’t looking too bad from a weather perspective – at least the sun might make an appearance, which is a big bonus at this time of year. Temperatures will top out in the low 30s.
The weekend is looking like a mixed bag, with overcast skies and a few flurries Saturday and temperatures again in the low 30s. Sunday will be generally clear, but very cold, with temperatures struggling to make it into the mid-20s. There’s a chance of a few snow flurries here or there. Bundle up!
In the headlines…
It is now all but certain that enhanced Obamacare subsidies will expire Dec. 31 after the Senate voted down competing partisan health plans and House GOP leaders have no plans to bring an extension up for a vote this year.
Republicans blocked Democrats’ effort to extend the expiring subsidies while Democrats thwarted a G.O.P. proposal to replace them with direct payments for basic health coverage.
Affordable Care Act subsidies will end in three weeks, more than doubling the premiums for many with health coverage through the 2010 law known as “Obamacare.”
The House approved a measure to reinstate collective bargaining rights to federal workers, a step toward restoring labor union protections for nearly 1 million federal employees and the first time it has voted to nullify an executive order from Trump this term.
In the House of Representatives, the speaker controls everything, from office space to what legislation can get a vote on the House floor. But lately, time and again, Speaker Mike Johnson appears to have lost his grip.
The House voted 237-140 to set aside a resolution from Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to impeach Trump.
The United States is planning to require some visitors to provide their social media history from the past five years, according to Trump’s administration.
President Trump signed an executive order that aims to neuter state laws that limit the artificial intelligence industry, a win for tech companies that have lobbied against regulation of the booming technology.
The order grants broad authority to the attorney general to sue states and overturn laws that do not support the “United States’ global A.I. dominance,” putting dozens of A.I. safety and consumer protection laws at risk.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration could not unilaterally cancel a FEMA grant program that states used for disaster preparation, imposing a potential hurdle in the administration’s efforts to tighten FEMA’s purse strings.
A task force that President Trump created to explore an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday abruptly postponed a meeting where it had been scheduled to vote on recommendations to reshape the agency.
Working Americans are going to get “very large refunds” of $1,000 to $2,000 per household early in the new year, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The checks will come in the first quarter of 2026 as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republican members of the Indiana Senate bucked President Trump and joined Democrats in voting down a new congressional map that would have positioned Republicans to sweep the state’s U.S. House seats.
A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., declined to indict Letitia James, the New York attorney general, the second time in a week that jurors had rejected the effort — a rebuke of President Trump’s bid to order up prosecutions against his political enemies.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to sign legislation creating a new government office to help kids with reading disabilities. It’s one of the more than 150 bills currently awaiting her signature or veto before the end of the year.
Hochul signed two bills to boost AI transparency in the film industry, describing them as “first in the nation” policies and committed to continuing protecting performers.
Hochul completely rewrote a bill passed by the state legislature intended to regulate artificial intelligence models to ensure public safety, substituting it with language favored by the same Big Tech interests that have held fundraisers for her in recent weeks.
New York City lawmakers are ramping up pressure on Hochul to reopen long-shuttered psychiatric hospitals, arguing a severe shortage of long-term beds is feeding the city’s homelessness and public safety crises.
Federal transportation officials are probing whether a Chinese national blamed for a fatal highway pileup in Tennessee this week was illegally issued a New York State driver’s license.
More than 30 city organizations received a funding boost from the state to build housing for veterans, unhoused people and individuals with mental illnesses as part of an effort to increase affordable housing options.
GenZ and millennial New Yorkers are being hammered by rising costs, shrinking job opportunities and ballooning debt. That could mean that the state’s economic future is in peril, a new report from the state comptroller’s office found.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has again succeeded in delaying New York state’s ethics panel’s investigation into his $5 million COVID-19-era book deal.
Stakeholders in New York’s recreational marijuana market said they are scrambling to implement a mandatory digital “seed-to-sale” tracking system that is intended to sharply reduce or eliminate the proliferation of illicit products that have plagued the industry.
Days after his November win, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made a quiet attempt to slow the internal race for New York City Council speaker. It set into motion one of the first tests of his political muscle — and it did not end well.
Mamdani said that the Democratic Socialists of America group remains his “political home,” even as a couple of his recent congressional endorsement moves have rankled some members of the leftist organization.
Mamdani defended his allegiance to the NYC-DSA when pressed over criticism from members about him backing City Comptroller Brad Lander over the group’s pick, Council Member Alexa Avilés, in the Democratic primary for the NY-10 race.
Mamdani reportedly has been icing out ally Bill de Blasio amid the former mayor’s cheating scandal — and CNN also decided not to renew his contract at the network.
Before being elected mayor of New York City — the most audacious run of his life — Mamdani won a league title with his weeknight soccer team, which knew him merely as “Z”.
Mayor Eric Adams said he is unsure whether he’ll attend Mamdani’s inauguration on New Year’s Day, saying he’s hesitant to do so because the mayor-elect’s “nasty” supporters might use the opportunity to make a scene.
With just three weeks left in office, Adams is filling slots on the city’s independent police watchdog board with members seen as being more supportive of cops — slotting in a retired NYPD inspector after putting in a new interim chair earlier this week.
Education Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos is laying out why she should continue running the nation’s largest school district, articulating her vision of how she could implement Mamdani’s vague calls to end mayoral control of schools.
Under Comptroller Lander’s management, New York City’s public pension funds have seen windfalls from investments in an Israeli arms manufacturer – a potential problem for Lander as he mounts a 2026 primary challenge against Rep. Dan Goldman.
City Council members have several housing-related bills on their desks, including a new version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, and measures that some groups estimate will drive up the cost of city-funded housing by millions of dollars.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office and Hochul announced that 13 people are now facing charges for grand larceny, conspiracy and criminal possession of stolen property from Home Depot stores in a sprawling 780-count indictment.
A former NYPD lieutenant who was fired after pleading guilty at departmental trial to receiving $100,000 for hours he did not work — mostly in fraudulent overtime — will not go to prison as long as he is not rearrested, a Manhattan judge said this week.
Big Apple “medspas” routinely perform Botox, Brazilian butt lifts and other beauty procedures without medical licenses, clean conditions — or even real doctors, a stomach-turning probe found.
The city of Glen Cove is apparently the first municipality in the state to enact a ban on smoking pot in public since New York made weed legal, with the City Council approving the prohibition at a contentious meeting earlier this week.
Interim Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox is staying on to lead the city’s police department, Mayor-elect Dorcey Applyrs announced.
Lawyers for the two sides in the St. Clare’s Hospital pension trial gave their closing remarks yesterday at the Schenectady County Courthouse.
A Johnstown councilman, school coach and special education teacher was arrested on allegations that he sent inappropriate messages to students.
Schenectady County Manager Rory Fluman has been placed on administrative leave until the end of the year, according to a brief statement issued by the county. Fluman’s two-year term expires at the end of December.
Elected officials in two branches of Rensselaer County’s government will get an automatic pay bump for years to come due to a charter change that aligns their salary boosts with pay increases for union workers.
A tractor-trailer crashed on the Northway yesterday, spilling fuel and backing up traffic for miles on the highway.
Brendan Carl, the Saratoga Springs man who shot and killed his friend and roommate, Michael Collins, with a pellet gun last spring, was ordered to serve one to three years in prison.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
