Good morning, it’s Thursday, and just like that, the weekend is already almost upon us!
I have been a remote worker for more than six years now. There are days when this gets to me. Even though I basically spend all day, every day talking to people through my phone or my computer screen, that really is no substitute for actual in-person contact.
But this feeling is usually outweighed by the convenience of working from home, being able to pop out for an errand and not rely on eating out when I get hungry. (The fact that I live relatively close to a Starbucks is helpful, as I can just take myself out for coffee during the day if in need of some real world interaction and a change of scenery).
Aside from the chit-chat, working in an office does have some other benefits, most notably birthday cake (we had a lot of those at my last in-person experience), celebratory lunches (usually pizza, but sometimes Chipotle, Panera or some other version of fast casual) and everyone’s favorite, the holiday cookie exchange.
As someone who enjoys gustatory variety, I am a big fan of the cookie exchange. I don’t like ordering entrees when I eat out, not only because portion sizes trend toward gargantuan, but also because I get bored of eating the same thing halfway through. Some combination of soup, appetizer, and/or salad usually fixes this problem.
Similarly, a lot of just one kind of cookie is boring – especially when there are so many cookies to choose from!
If you’re not familiar with the cookie exchange, the premise is that everyone brings a treat to share (“cookie” is a loose term, as bars, brownies, and even cake slices are more than acceptable in my book), and also an empty container. The cookies are set up on a long table, and you go around the table taking one of each.
At the end, you have a splendid assortment to take home, replacing the monochrome palette with which you arrived.
The modern-day cookie exchange – during which the swap is the focus of a specific pre-planned event – has been around since at least the early 1900s, but the practice of sharing sweet treats dates back centuries.
The cookie itself is also hundreds of years old. The word “cookie” comes from the Dutch word koekje, but the practice of making a small-ish treat that was used to test the temperature of the oven appears to have originated in Persia, where sugar cane was first cultivated. The cookie evolved over time – and in different cultures – which is why we have so many varieties today.
There is no right or wrong time for cookies, in my book, but they are especially popular during the holiday season. I tried in vain to determine exactly how many kinds of Christmas cookies exist, but there are just far too many to count – from the traditional iced sugar cookie to the chocolate-enrobed Italian rainbow cookie to the spicy and powdered sugar-covered German pfeffernuesse.
I am particularly partial to anything with jam in it, including thumbprints and Linzer tarts (my dad used to bring these home and I loved them), but I also wouldn’t say no to a gingersnap or even a tried-and-true chocolate chip.
Today is National Cookie Day, and while there are plenty of deals and freebies out there to take advantage of, I am of the opinion that homemade trumps store bought any day. So, if you’re planning a cookie exchange and have room for one more, count me in. I am even willing to promise not to bring gluten-free, sugar-free, fat-free “healthy” cookies, though I have been known to do so.
Skies will be mostly cloudy today with the possibility of a little sun peeking through in the afternoon. Temperatures will again reach only into the low 30s and there’s a chance of snow showers, though nothing like what we saw earlier in the week.
In the headlines…
The New York Times says it plans to sue the Pentagon, arguing that the Defense Department infringed on the constitutional rights of its journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military.
President Trump threw the weight of the federal government behind vehicles that burn gas rather than electric cars, gutting one of the country’s most significant efforts to address climate change and thrusting the automobile industry into greater uncertainty.
Trump this week pardoned a real estate developer who had been charged by the president’s own Justice Department earlier this year with rigging the bidding process for a sports arena.
House Democrats released photographs and videos of the disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s home on the private Caribbean island where his accusers have said that he trafficked underage girls for sex.
A 127-slip marina and New York City real estate mogul Andrew Farkas co-owned with Epstein has put the billionaire investor in a new and troubling spotlight.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend who was convicted of recruiting young girls into sex trafficking, is planning to ask a judge to release her from prison, according to a new court filing.
In a letter to Judge Paul Engelmayer filed yesterday, Maxwell’s attorney said the one-time British socialite would soon file a habeas corpus petition seeking her release from the prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence.
Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday, arguing that he overlooks women and shouldn’t “be our next president.”
“At this stage in my life, I have zero f–ks left to give,” Berry said in remarks at the Dealbook Summit before taking aim at the Democratic governor, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Increasing tension between U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson reached a breaking point yesterday with the six-term congresswoman publicly saying he’s lost support within their party.
A small group of G.O.P. women have been among the most vocal in raising what their colleagues say is a broader frustration with the speaker. Their dissatisfaction is indicative of a broader splintering of a restive group of lawmakers unhappy with Johnson.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to add a requirement that people videotape their requests for physician-assisted deaths, one of several conditions she’s put forward to sign the hotly debated Medical Aid in Dying Act.
Hochul and MTA leaders have hailed the controversial congestion pricing as a success that’s driving down traffic in the heart of Manhattan — but other analysts are saying not so fast.
The Trump administration is still trying to put the brakes on congestion pricing. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked a judge to make a move as “soon as it is able” months after Trump declared the toll on all vehicles entering lower Manhattan was dead.
The MTA’s controversial congestion pricing program has businesses passing on their toll costs to customers — even outside of the so-called “relief zone” in downtown Manhattan, industry leaders said.
Hochul received nearly $250,000 for her re-election campaign from donors eager to have her sign a bill that would regulate the A.I. field in New York – thanks to an event co-hosted by the bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman Alex Bores.
Hochul said her upcoming State of the State address will include safeguards against harmful online content and new regulations around AI “companions,” which she said are misleading teens into thinking they are communicating with real people.
A personal income tax hike remains a no-go for Hochul — but she pointedly did not rule out other ways of boosting revenue next year.
Linda Sun, a former high-ranking state official, purportedly had a harder time getting Gov. Andrew Cuomo to do what she wanted than his second-in-command at the time, Hochul, according to text messages shown to federal jurors in Brooklyn this week.
Two state lawmakers announced legislation aimed to move New York’s presidential primaries in 2028 to Super Tuesday, traditionally the biggest day nationwide for primary elections and caucuses before Election Day in November.
Southampton’s pot shop regulations are “unreasonably impracticable” — and flat-out illegal, the State Attorney General’s Office wrote in a recent letter to a federal judge.
A growing chorus of New York City families are pushing Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to keep schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in place when he takes office in January to avoid a leadership shakeup in the middle of the school year.
Jamie Torres-Springer, a senior Metropolitan Transportation Authority official and the husband of one of Mamdani’s transition team heads, is under consideration to become Mamdani’s deputy mayor for operations.
A number of pro-Palestinian groups slammed Mamdani for his decision to retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner in an open letter, accusing Mamdani of abandoning a cause central to his political identity.
The City Council is barreling ahead with a bill to give local elected officials pay raises, scheduling a hearing for later this month, even as the two with the most say on the matter, Mamdani and incoming Council Speaker Julie Menin, haven’t said where they stand.
Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan called Mamdani an “enemy” of Jews and accused him of normalizing antisemitism as he urged the Jewish community to confront the far-left pol directly.
Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, said that he would run for a New York City House seat being vacated by Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, setting the stage for a potential clash with a growing democratic socialist movement.
The city DSA issued a rallying cry for its members to infiltrate parent and community groups – as they fight to push their agenda through government “enemies” including Hochul.
Mayor Eric Adams announced an executive order that bars New York City from making business or pension investment decisions that discriminate against Israel — in a veiled swipe at his BDS-supporting successor Mamdani.
A pro-Israel Holocaust survivor who was turned away from speaking to Brooklyn middle schoolers about antisemitism called the rejection “censorship” and slammed the Adams administration for defending the principal’s controversial denial.
Some state lawmakers want to ban protests within 25 feet of houses of worship, in the aftermath of a protest where a mob of anti-Israel demonstrators descended on a Manhattan synagogue chanting “death to the IDF”.
A Manhattan judge has ordered OpenAI to provide the Daily News and other news outlets with millions of anonymous chats between ChatGPT and its users in a major ongoing copyright infringement case.
Instacart has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court asking a judge to strike down New York City’s minimum wage for grocery delivery workers.
A $68 million investment announced by city officials yesterday aims to turn Prospect Park into a giant sponge capable of reducing flooding in neighborhoods across Central Brooklyn.
MTA officials are promising F train riders in Queens will have an easier time finding a seat during their morning commutes, thanks to a nifty trick the agency will implement Monday.
The MTA’s total shift to tap-to-pay will make fare enforcement easier, MTA brass says — especially on buses where the bulk of fare evasion occurs.
A Texas woman in town to view the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade described, in an interview with the Daily News, her harrowing encounter in Manhattan with the homeless man accused in the unprovoked attack on an NYU student.
The homeless ex-con accused of randomly assaulting an NYU student on her way to class committed an eerily similar attack just days earlier in Manhattan, cops said. He was charged with assault in both incidents.
It’s been a frigid week in New York City, and it’s just getting chillier, with temperatures potentially reaching record lows and feeling like they’re in the teens tomorrow.
ICE agents arrested at least 7,488 people in New York this year through mid-October, according to new data from the agency. The agency is on track to arrest twice as many people in New York this year compared to last year.
An NYPD officer violated New York sanctuary city laws limiting the department’s assistance to federal immigration agencies by accepting a request from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to flag individuals facing deportation, a DOI report charges.
Locals and tourists from across the world braved the crowds and the cold yesterday, waiting hours in line to catch a glimpse of the iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree light up for the holiday season.
Siena University men’s lacrosse coach Liam Gleason died yesterday at Albany Medical Center, three days after he suffered a head injury from a fall at his home. He was 41.
“A sudden, senseless loss carries a kind of pain that defies understanding,” Siena president Chuck Seifert said in a statement. “It’s hard to imagine anyone more universally loved and admired than Liam. Our community was blessed by Coach Gleason’s life.”
Schenectady City Council members are poised to suspend the unpopular bulk trash sticker program, which would allow residents to return to leaving certain bulk garbage items, such as mattresses and couches, at the curb free of charge for at least two months.
Parent-teacher organizations and school officials are flocking to a small Capital Region nonprofit for help designing accessible events.
Half of city renters struggle to afford their apartments, owning a home is a fantasy for most and the inclusionary zoning measures adopted over the last decade have largely failed, according to a 10-year audit of Albany housing released yesterday.
Federal immigration agents arrested 10 Afghans in the Albany area this week as the federal government is rounding up migrants from that country following the shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., last week.
Chipmaker GlobalFoundries and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy have expanded their workforce development and educational partnership yet again.
A man wearing a clown mask and using a chainsaw to threaten another man during a fight in a Cohoes neighborhood was convicted on charges related to the May 1 incident.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
