Good morning, it’s Friday we are half in and half out of the black hole that is the holiday week.
I feel like people are dropping off my meeting and call invites like flies, which brings out the very Grinchiest of tendencies in me. I’,s sorry, but as you know I am not a big holiday person. I love what I do. I like to work – probably a little too much and to the detriment of my social life (but rarely to the detriment of my training schedule, and when that happens I get very ornery).
I do enjoy some holiday season traditions. We’ve already discussed my soft spot for cookie exchanges, for example, and I also like tasteful (read: white lights, evergreen and red bows) decorations, Christmas carols, and hot cocoa.
Things I am absolutely NOT a fan of include but are not limited to: Holiday traffic, plastic lawn ornaments and garish colored light displays (I am admittedly a snob, I know), eggnog (thick, viscous goo with raw egg and whisky, hard no), and ugly sweaters.
My husband and I were invited to an ugly sweater party last year – in Florida, of all places. Side note: As a born and bred upstater, it is VERY disconcerting to me to spend the holidays in a topical climate, though white lights on palm trees is indeed striking. I first tried Goodwill, but to no avail. I guess everyone else was also trying to find cheap ugly synthetic sweaters with bells on them?
Anyway, the interwebs did not disappoint. The result of my search – or maybe it was Steve who found it? – was a knitted cardigan festooned with Santa hat-wearing flamingos and pompoms. The sleeves resembled red-and-white striped candy canes. The whole thing was just so disgusting I could not believe it existed at all.
I felt certain that I would win the ugly sweater contest hands down. I mean, it was a regionally appropriate sweater! And sadly, it was not the ugliest sweater in the house – not by a long shot.
And, you might ask, what did I do with said sweater? As soon as I got home, I think I threw it away (it was only $10 at the most and maybe the postage cost more than the actual garment itself?)
I am sorry that I contributed to the fast fashion detritus filling up landfills around the globe. If I could have safely burned it, I would have, but think of the chemicals I would have released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change and everything. No, burying it was the best of a host of bad options.
I’m fairly sure that as long as there have been knitted articles of clothing there have been some that people consider unattractive – ugly even. But the holiday sweater appears to have been born in the 1950s, when they were known as “jingle bell sweaters“, as they featured small bells sewn on along with the usual snowflake and reindeer designs.
These festive pullovers were adopted by TV personalities of the day, but didn’t necessarily become an iconic trend until TV and/or move dads like Cliff Huxtable and Clark Griswold made them famous. The first documented ugly sweater holiday party is credited to to guys who lived in Vancouver, Canada in 2000, though there are some people in Michigan who maintain they actually did it first.
Either way, it is now most definitely a THING – according to one estimate, Americans buy about 10 million ugly Christmas sweaters every year. And another source maintain that these sweaters are actually an environmental detriment, because they’re mostly made out of synthetic fibers and often contain plastic, so cannot be recycled.
Love them or hate them, ugly holiday sweaters are here to stay. And they even have their own national day, which is – you guessed it! – today.
It’s going to be very warm, with highs in the high 50s (!!!), but also very wet. It will be windy and rainy in the morning, with rain starting out steady early in the day and then tapering off to showers in the afternoon.
Things will be back to relatively normal tomorrow, Saturday, with temperatures settling back down into the 30s and mostly cloudy skies. Sunday will bring more of the same, with maybe a little bit more sun – but really nothing to get your hopes too high up about.
In the headlines…
A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said.
Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead last night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference.
Neves Valente briefly studied physics as a graduate student at Brown University, enrolling in the fall of 2000 and leaving in the spring of 2001. He took a leave of absence in April 2001 before formally withdrawing in 2003.
Three days after the deadly shooting at Brown University, officers received an anonymous tip that stuck out from a flood of information. It directed the authorities to a post on Reddit. That tip would later lead to a breakthrough in the case.
Authorities said that they’re looking into a connection between last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University and an attack two days later near Boston that killed a professor at another elite school, the MIT.
Federal prosecutors said that the suspect in the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was his former classmate.
Trump signed an executive order to downgrade cannabis from the most restrictive category of drugs, easing some limitations and allowing for more research.
The move, which does not decriminalize marijuana, also authorizes a pilot program to reimburse Medicare patients for products made with CBD, a popular compound of cannabis that is not psychoactive.
The Biden administration had begun the rescheduling process but left the matter unfinished by the time Trump assumed office. In August, Trump signaled he was open to finishing where Biden left off.
A photo of woman’s foot with a quote from “Lolita” written on the arch was among dozens of images released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee one day before the Justice Department’s deadline to share all files Jeffrey Epstein.
The Trump-anointed board of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts piggybacked the president’s name onto its title Thursday, after No. 47 had teased such a change for months.
The board for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that it would now be named the Trump-Kennedy Center, although a formal change may have to be approved by Congress.
The Trump administration said that it would appeal a ruling that sided with Harvard University in its fight with the government over free speech and billions of dollars in research funding.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, responding to the results of a new survey, said with a laugh that she’d “stomp” Vice President JD Vance if she and the potential 2028 Republican nominee face off in the next presidential election.
The highly anticipated November inflation report showed prices appearing to grow at a far slower rate, surprising analysts and markets after a year of stubbornly rising costs.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is vowing to fight the Trump administration as it seeks to impose new rules blocking hospitals from providing gender-affirming care to young people.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services is proposing a rule that would prohibit hospitals from receiving funding through Medicare or Medicaid if they provide services such as puberty blockers, hormones or surgeries to people under 18.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that subway crime has dropped to its lowest level in 16 years while also committing another $77 million toward keeping an increased police presence on the system through next year.
According to the governor’s office, this year is on pace to be the second safest non-pandemic year in the subway system in recorded history, eclipsed only by 2009.
Hochul said the state would spend another $77 million on police patrols in the subway, acknowledging that felony assaults remain stubbornly high.
Although she’s tracking better in the polls and leading her Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, and two Republican opponents, Hochul has to navigate a difficult triangle between the threats and needs in 2026 as she seeks re-election.
Hochul said she likely won’t select a 2026 running mate until February of next year.
Bruce Blakeman is running for governor of New York. But his first big television ad campaign is slated to air 1,000 miles away — in Florida.
Hochul’s decision to sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act with amendments was blasted by the Catholic Church and even sparked blowback from aid-in-dying advocates due to additional restrictions the governor insisted on adding to the law.
Hochul has signed legislation aimed at evaluating and improving how Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) history is taught in public schools across New York state.
Jurors in the Linda Sun case said that they can’t decide on whether the former top aide to Govs. Hochul and Andrew Cuomo illegally served as a Chinese agent.
Dozens of immigrants and advocates gathered outside of Hochul’s Midtown office, demanding that she push for the passage and enactment of the New York for All Act to bar local and law enforcement and government agencies from collaborating with ICE.
For the third year in a row, Hochul received negative marks on the New York Coalition for Open Government’s annual “naughty or nice list” – a roll call of officials who worked to shut the public out of government or helped to keep them informed.
Cat Da Costa, a top official in Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s incoming administration, resigned abruptly yesterday after a series of anti-Jewish tweets were uncovered, just one day after her appointment was announced.
The social media posts in question, which were reported by the Judge Street Journal newsletter after the Anti-Defamation League publicized them, date back to Costa’s teenage years. The incident raises serious questions about the transition’s vetting process.
Da Costa, now 33, is married to a deputy city comptroller who is Jewish. She said: “As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused.”
“Tweeting about ‘Money hungry Jews’ is indefensible,” the New York and New Jersey chapter of the Anti-Defamation League wrote, noting that many of Da Costa’s posts echoed antisemitic tropes.
Mamdani announced one of the most consequential but least talked about hires in his young government morning: The democratic socialist is tapping Sherif Soliman, a de Blasio-era official, as his budget director.
Soliman, currently the chief financial officer of the City University of New York, “has deep competence navigating the political complexities of budget management,” Mamdani said.
As Mamdani prepares to take over as mayor of New York, his team and allies have been pushing back against proposals that could make it more difficult to build new homes in the city.
Incoming New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill threw shade at Mamdani for taking credit for hosting World Cup 2026 games next summer — as she floated a reverse congestion pricing plan for New York fans headed to the Garden State for the monumental event.
At their final meeting of the year, New York City Council members passed a slew of housing-related bills that would require the city to build more affordable housing for families and put local nonprofits at the front of the line for building sales.
On their way out the door, the City Council left its mark on the city’s housing market, a move that some believe will stunt housing construction and scare away investment.
New York’s electricity regulator is demanding Con Ed devise a plan to address the reliability of the Big Apple’s grid — after frightening concerns about the potential for blackouts came to light.
Mayor Eric Adams appointed four members late yesterday to the city’s Rent Guidelines Board in a last-minute attempt to stymy Mamdani’s promise of a rent freeze for stabilized tenants.
The gambit would ensure that Adams appointees make up a majority of the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board for at least the next year and complicate Mamdani’s pledge to preside over four consecutive rent freezes.
First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro’s legal work for the Madison Square Garden corporate empire technically violated local ethics law, as he engaged in it while serving as the second-in-command at City Hall, according to the city’s Department of Investigation.
The MetroCard is facing retirement: Dec. 31 is its last day on sale, although the M.T.A. says you will still be able to use a MetroCard for a while in 2026.
The MTA will dish out $7.3 million to expand its anti-fare evasion gadgets to nearly every subway station in the five boroughs — even though rule breakers have been laughing their way right past them.
The New School in New York City is facing a financial crisis and a dramatic restructuring that some professors and students fear will lead to the collapse of its liberal arts and social science programs, even as its president vows the plan will strengthen the university.
A three-week hearing on accused murderer Luigi Mangione’s case concluded yesterday, leaving a Manhattan judge to weigh what evidence can be used against him at trial.
A 29-year-old Bronx man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for leading a criminal enterprise that stole caseloads of beer from railyards and beverage distribution facilities across four Northeastern states and resold the pilfered pilsners.
Police shot a 29-year-old man in the torso yesterday afternoon in the city’s South End after he allegedly opened fire at two detectives with a .40 caliber handgun.
Even before Saratoga Mayor John Safford is sworn in for a second term, the city’s Republican chairman, who backed his reelection, is criticizing the mayor’s choice for city attorney.
The Salmon River School District placed several top officials on leave after parents and other members of the small community lashed out after learning that some students may have been confined in wooden “timeout” boxes in elementary school classrooms.
An injured ram was found Wednesday on ice overlooking the Mohawk River. Rams are not natives to the area, police said, leading them to conclude that the animal was abandoned.
In 1978, a car plowed through the front of Gene’s Fish Fry on Route 4 in East Greenbush, according to owner Mark Halsey. On Wednesday, it happened again.
Chris Hunter, president of the MiSci Museum, said he’s fielded about a dozen or so inquiries over the past month from people asking what’s up with the landmark GEmonogram not being awash in its customary holiday season red-and-green glow up.
Questions about how land should be used in the Town of Bethlehem are coming into sharper relief as municipal authorities and the public weigh a proposal that would rezone large portions of the town and make open spaces easier to develop.
The jury was dismissed and the punitive damages portion of the trial over the collapse of the St. Clare’s Hospital pension fund was canceled yesterday after lawyers in the matter reached an agreement.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
