Good morning, it’s Friday(!!!)
I’m not sure how I missed that yesterday was National Bagel Day. Perhaps I have finally reached the point where I no longer even THINK about bagels as an option because the upstate pickings are so slim.
The last time I complained about this, a lovely and talented reader who has a side hustle in homemade bagel-making came to my rescue and provided (if I recall correctly) two dozen delicious specimens.
They did not last long, even though I froze a few for safekeeping. Bagels freeze surprisingly well and reheat with ease in the air fryer – pro tip: dip them briefly in water before re-heating OR wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave before toasting. You’ll thank me later for this, I’m sure.
(If you’re reading this person who knows who they are, this is NOT a veiled request for you to make a trek to the Albany area, but rather a note of thanks and appreciation).
Anyway, moving on from missed opportunities…Today is another day, and another chance to rhapsodize about a foodstuff, though in this case it’s one that might be less universally loved than bagels: Fig Newtons.
Yes, for some reason that remains unbeknownst to me, today is National Fig Newton Day, and since I am a fan of all things fig and also of foods that double as energy sources for long runs and hikes and rides, I’m here for it.
First, let’s start with the fig itself, which is one of the oldest cultivated crops known to man. They were likely one of the original domesticated crops, pre-dating grains by a long shot, and originating in the Near East.
And yes, in case you’re wondering if that rumor you heard was true, figs are pollinated by tiny wasps that die after they’v done their duty and get digested inside the fruit. That may contribute in some cases to the fig’s unique and interesting crunchy texture – along with the plethora of tiny seeds. (This does make the fig a bit of a conundrum for strict vegans and those who keep kosher).
Prized for its natural sweetness, the fig is seen as a symbol of fertility and prosperity and played a role in ancient medicine as they were believe to improve digestion and enhance strength and ability. Today, the fig is having something of a moment, thanks to its high fiber content, as well as a source of potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and antioxidants.
So figs in all their forms – fresh, dried, pounded into paste, etc. – have been around for a long time. But the modern-day use of fig paste as a filling for a cookie was developed in the late 1800s by a baker in Philadelphia, PA, named Charles M. Roser, who patented his design for inserting said paste into a cake-like dough.
Roser later sold his recipe to the Kennedy Biscuit Company, which went on to mass produce this sweet treat. (If you want to really go down a rabbit hole, click here to learn about how Roser played a key role in building the Florida resort community of Anna Maria Island).
The name “Fig Newton”, by the way, was not intended to honor physicist Sir Isaac Newton, but rather the town of Newton, MA, as the Boston-based Kennedy Biscuit Company had a practice of naming their products after local towns and/or neighborhoods or landmarks.
Kennedy Biscuit was later merged with a number of other bakery companies around the nation to form the National Biscuit Company, AKA NBC, which eventually built a mega-bakery in downtown Manhattan in what is now Chelsea Market. NBC eventually morphed into “Nabisco” in the 1970s in part to end confusion with the National Broadcasting Company, which had the same initials.
Today, Fig Newtons consistently rank among America’s top cookies, (though they were originally branded as a “cake”, which lasted up until the 1980s), selling more than a billion units a year. Today, by the way, they’re known as just “Newtons”, in part because you can get them in flavors other than fig.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but Fig Newton’s aren’t actually a healthier cookie alternative. They are ultra processed, which is increasingly becoming a very bad moniker indeed. I personally am of the opinion that “everything in moderation” is the way to go, and, of course, when you’re participating in a very long distance hike/run/ride, whatever your stomach will tolerate is what you should rely on for calories.
Hopefully you didn’t shove your heavy sweaters, coats, and long underwear too far to the back of the closet, because you’re going to need them today.
Temperatures will be dipping back down into the 20s, though skies will be partly cloudy with no precipitation in the forecast until tomorrow afternoon/evening. That’s when the snow showers will be moving in and last through Sunday. Temperatures over the weekend will fluctuate between the high 20s and mid 30s. Brrrr. Winter is still here.
In the headlines…
Newly released records from the Minneapolis police and fire departments detailed the chaotic moments that unfolded after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good, found in her vehicle with two gunshot wounds to her chest and another to her forearm.
President Donald Trump warned he might invoke the centuries-old Insurrection Act to deploy US troops to Minnesota as state and federal officials clash over tactics used by immigration agents.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota sought to calm escalating tensions in his state yesterday, asking protesters to demonstrate peacefully and pleading with Trump to back off his threat to deploy the U.S. military to Minneapolis.
A complaint filed in federal court in Minnesota accused a man, Alex Venegas-Cruz, of ramming a vehicle that contained Border Patrol agents on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, the same day that an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in the city.
The ACLU of Minnesota filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government, claiming immigration agents violently arrested or detained US citizens who were minding their own business.
A federal judge said he would restrict the Trump administration’s ability to deport noncitizen members of two major academic organizations, sharing his vision for how to proceed in a case testing the First Amendment rights of noncitizen student activists.
María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader and last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, said that after dining with Trump at the White House that she had presented him with “the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize.’’
“María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump wrote on social media. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
Machado, who described the meeting as “excellent,” said the gift was in recognition of what she called his commitment to the freedom of the Venezuelan people.
The White House shared on social media an image of Trump holding the frame containing the Nobel medal. The Nobel Committee has said the Peace Prize is not transferable.
The U.S. Coast Guard said yesterday that it had taken control of a tanker that was operating in defiance of the Trump administration’s partial blockade on sanctioned vessels transporting oil from Venezuela, the sixth ship intercepted since December.
Trump released his long-awaited health care plan, urging Congress to pass measures to codify steps his administration has already taken to try to lower drug costs and providing what a White House official called “broad direction” to back health savings accounts.
The plan was short on specific details and left much of the direction for how to finalize it up to Congress. It amounted to a few paragraphs on a webpage, released with a video of Trump promoting what he called “the great health care plan.”
Two Instagram influencers busted last year in a sweeping NBA betting case in Brooklyn face new charges in Pennsylvania, accused of taking part in a “points shaving” scheme with a cadre of NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association players.
Shane “Sugar” Hennen and Marves “Vezino Locks” Fairley, who were charged in Brooklyn Federal Court in October, face charges in the District of Eastern of Pennsylvania alongside 17 former and current college players in a new indictment unsealed yesterday.
Climate activists say Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State message did little to assuage their growing concerns over her evolving stance on some environmental issues.
Hochul wouldn’t rule out future income tax hikes in the Empire State as questions swirl over how the state will fund its promised universal child care program.
One of New York’s offshore wind projects is back on track, for now. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction for Norwegian energy firm Equinor to resume construction on its New York offshore wind project, Empire 1.
After he endorsed LG Antonio Delgado on Jan. 5, Hochul excluded Sen. Jabari Brisport from the guest list for her marquee announcement celebrating the statewide expansion of subsidized child care on Jan. 8.
AG Letitia James filed an insider trading lawsuit against a former biotech chief executive, accusing him of turning a $7.6 million profit on the sale of the company’s stock before the public learned that millions of doses of a Covid-19 vaccine were contaminated.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli cast a political rival’s critique of the management of the state pension fund as “baloney,” as the debate over how New York manages $291 billion in retirement funds for more than 1.2 million people is again campaign fodder.
As artificial intelligence becomes more commonly used in both the public and private sectors to make consequential decisions, state lawmakers in New York are seeking to set new guardrails for those tools.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman blasted Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s goal of phasing out part of the Big Apple’s Gifted and Talented program — arguing student achievement should be “colorblind.”
Amid mounting pressure to staff Mamdani’s administration, top transition officials opted not to complete the full vetting process before announcing one of his earliest hires, a misstep that allowed an appointee’s antisemitic tweets to go undetected.
Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez has a word of warning for Mamdani, the mayor she just helped to elect: Back off city politics. Tension has quietly growing between the two Democratic allies for weeks over who should succeed Velázquez in Congress after she retires.
Black and Latino leaders in New York City are questioning Mamdani’s commitment to diversity based on his top administration appointments.
Mamdani appointed Afua Atta-Mensah, who was a top official on his mayoral campaign, leading general election outreach to Black voters, to head the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice.
Afua Atta-Mensah’s X account was deactivated by a press announcement of her appointment in a move that comes after other Mamdani appointees’ social media footprints set off firestorms.
Mamdani’s embattled radical-left tenant advocate, Cea Weaver, once admitted that fighting for rent control was the “critical first step” in a plan to tank the free housing market and work towards “full social housing.”
The New York Working Families Party is endorsing Brian Romero for a hotly-contested State Assembly seat in Queens, putting the progressive group at odds with the Democratic Socialists of America and Mamdani, who are backing another candidate in the race.
New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection filed a lawsuit accusing a delivery app, Motoclick, of stealing earnings from delivery workers and charging them illegal fees – one of the first major moves by new commissioner, Samuel Levine.
A federal appeals court reversed a lower court order blocking the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student arrested last year for his pro-Palestinian activism.
Mamdani said Khalil “must remain free,” in a social media post shortly after a federal appeals panel reversed a lower court decision that released the former Columbia University graduate student from an immigration jail.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin plans to tap Eric Dinowitz, Oswald Feliz, Shaun Abreu and Shekar Krishnan to chair the Council’s Education, Public Safety, Transportation and Oversight committees, handing four of the most prominent posts to key political allies.
Menin is only letting Queens Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino serve on two committees this session due to her “abhorrent” social media posts about Muslims and other minorities.
Menin plans today to unveil a sweeping antisemitism initiative to address rising fear among some Jewish New Yorkers — setting up a potential clash with Mamdani.
A moderate Democrat has been chosen to lead the New York City Council committee charged with debating Mamdani’s proposed Department of Community Safety.
The massive nurses strike hitting three major New York City hospital systems hit its fourth day yesterday with no end in sight as both sides increasingly dug in, flinging bitter accusations of bullying, retaliation and sabotage.
Five days into the New York City nurses’ strike, only one of the three hospital systems affected by the walkout had returned to the negotiating table as both sides appeared to dig in for a protracted battle.
The number of businesses in New York City plummeted by nearly 5,000 last spring, according to new data, the sharpest decline since the coronavirus pandemic brought the local economy to a standstill in early 2020.
A two-star Midtown Manhattan hotel is facing allegations it has become a front for prostitution — and the city has sued to get the doors closed for good.
A former building superintendent was convicted on two counts of grand larceny after stealing more than $350,000 from a 98-year-old resident of the Manhattan building where she worked.
Ever so slowly, New York’s public housing buildings are converting to energy-efficient electric stoves and heating and cooling systems. But it’s a complicated process that will take time.
Facing long-standing staffing issues, Albany County intends to close its Children’s Mental Health Clinic, the state Office of Mental Health confirmed.
The Berne Town Board has called on the state Comptroller’s Office to investigate after residents received property tax bills well in excess of the levy approved by the board last year.
The St. Regis Mohawk Police Department is examining the use of another device possibly used to block or confine students in the Salmon River Central School District, where multiple “timeout boxes” were located.
Clifton Park’s former town attorney, Paul Pelagalli, withdrew the lawsuit he filed to hold on to his job.
School districts from Colonie to Queensbury are trying to manage the conflicting demands of two protected classes – cisgender and transgender girls – both of which are protected by the same law.
The Schenectady librarian accused of placing her foot on the back of an 8-year-old special needs student while he was face down on a classroom floor at Lincoln Elementary Community School is stepping down from her job with the district.
“Snap Yo Fingers” and drink your “Fireball” — Mr. Worldwide and Lil Jon are headed to Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
