Good morning, it’s Thursday.
One of the (in my opinion many) drawbacks of being a small person is that nothing fits the way it should. I am legit putting my tailors’ (and yes, that’s intended to be plural as I have more than one) kids through college.
My maternal grandfather, may he rest in peace, was an incredibly skilled tailor – he once replaced the entire lining of my favorite leather jacket that I had quite literally worn to near shreds. He made all my grandmother’s clothes fit like a glove. One of my biggest regrets is that I never took the time to learn from him beyond some basic sewing – replacing buttons, that sort of thing.
I have more or less come to terms with the fact that my ability to buy something off the rack and wear it immediately is very limited. I know, first world problems. Thankfully, clothes usually can be altered. Hats, however, are completely different story – either they fit my extremely tiny head or – more often than not – they don’t.
Even baseball hats, which are theoretically adjustable, don’t adjust down far enough to fit me without looking completely ridiculous. For this reason, likely exacerbated by my very short hair, I generally eschew hats unless I’m going to be outside for a long time (like hiking or running, for example) and care more about guarding against frostbite than being fashionable.
I do have a few straw fedoras that I purchased at…wait for it…the kid’s section in Target. They do fit my head, but I don’t have a case to wear them all that much. I think I also own a sunhat made from tightly folded candy wrappers that I purchased as an impulse buy from an island artisan at some point. Again, I don’t wear this a lot, as I’m not a big beach-goer as a rule.
This is not to say that I don’t like hats as a concept. I like them a lot on other people – especially at the track in the summer. I love a big, intricate, whimsical chapeau, that coordinates with an outfit – on someone else who can pull this sort of thing off. I also like hats on men, though sadly, I see mostly baseball hats these days, as opposed to bowlers, boaters, caps, and top hats of the past.
The practice of covering one’s head – either to protect it from the elements (sun, rain, snow, wind, etc.) or out of a sense of decorum or modesty, to signal a religious affiliation or status, or simply as a matter of sartorial expression – dates back centuries.
There are dozens of different types of hats, and if you want to go deep on how they’re constructed and their various nomenclatures, click here. The term “milliner” – the title of a person who makes hats (usually for women) – first emerged in the 16th century and grew in popularity through the 18th century, when Milan, Italy, established itself as a fashion – and hat – capital.
Today is National Hat Day, which, the story goes, commemorates the moment when an English haberdasher (a fancy name for a men’s clothing dealer) named John Hetherington caused a big stir when he appeared in public in what is believed to be the first top hat. Hetherington sparked such an uproar that he was reportedly charged with disturbing the peace and inciting a riot and forced to pay a fine.
The rain is expected to continue this morning, so it will be a good day for hats if you’re heading out early. A few snow flurries are also possible. Temperatures will start out on the warm side – in the high 30s – and fall into the 20s as the day progresses.
In the headlines…
The U.S. Senate blocked a resolution that sought to force President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval for any U.S. military action related to Venezuela.
Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, who had joined three other Republicans to advance the resolution alongside Democrats last week, flipped after they said they received assurances from the Trump administration.
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Capitol Hill last night to cast the tie-breaking vote, derailing the measure that would have forced the White House to seek congressional approval for further military force in the country.
The FBI yesterday raided the Virginia home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation into a government contractor who’s been accused of illegally retaining classified materials, the newspaper reported.
Hannah Natanson has spent the last year covering Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government, specifically through the firings of federal workers and redirecting resources into carrying out his agenda. She is not the focus of the probe.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said a federal officer shot a man in the leg during a scuffle in Minneapolis that involved multiple people — an incident that comes a week after the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in the same city.
Trump said that he does not currently have any plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“I don’t have any plan to do that,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters when asked if he would move to oust Powell from his position.
Trump said that the Iranian government appeared to have stopped killing protesters, though he did not say what that might mean for the possibility of U.S. military action against the country.
Iran yesterday postponed the execution of Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old protester who was sentenced to death just days after his arrest, according to human rights groups and family members.
Trump is not giving up in his pursuit of the U.S. owning Greenland, despite the complete rejection of such a move by officials from Copenhagen and Nuuk.
Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, left the White House complex saying that his country had a “fundamental disagreement” with Trump, as several NATO countries sent troops to Greenland.
France is the latest country to confirm a military deployment to Greenland as Denmark and allies are desperate to show Trump that they take the Arctic security seriously and are capable of defending it if needed.
After the White House meeting ended without a resolution on Greenland’s future, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, and Britain announced their deployment of military forces at Denmark’s request.
The fate of the world’s largest island has outsize importance for billions of people on the planet, because as the climate warms, Greenland is losing ice. That has consequences.
Verizon customers experienced a mobile service outage across the nation yesterday More than 180,000 unconfirmed reports were made to Downdetector. The hotspot map showed most of the reports coming from New York City, Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
Rival carriers T-Mobile and AT&T piled on as Verizon struggled through a massive nationwide outage, telling customers their own networks were operating normally while pointing the finger at its battered competitor.
The Verizon outage was resolved late last night, and the company said that it would give account credits to customers who had been affected.
Anil Beephan Jr., a state assemblyman in New York who represents parts of Dutchess County, sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, calling for an investigation into the outage and previous Verizon service disruptions.
The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the U.S. mental health and drug addiction system late Tuesday, sending hundreds of termination letters, effective immediately, for federal grants supporting health services.
Less than 24 hours after the White House informed more than 2,000 addiction and mental health programs nationwide that it was immediately terminating almost $2 billion of their funding, the administration reversed course and reinstated the money.
The decision followed furious lobbying by lawmakers from both parties to restore the cuts and a letter to the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with signatures from 100 House members.
Trump threatened to cut off federal funds on Feb. 1 to all states that include immigrant-friendly sanctuary cities like New York, which he derided as “criminal protection centers.”
Trump said that the feds wouldn’t provide any more assistance to states that include sanctuary cities, a list that would include Democratic-led economic powerhouses like New York, California and Illinois.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubled down on the Big Apple’s “sanctuary city” status in response to new chum President Trump’s warning that he’ll pull federal funding over the migrant-friendly policies.
“Our values and our laws cannot be bargaining chips,” the mayor wrote on X. “I will always defend the city and every single person who calls the city home, even in the face of threats from the federal administration to withhold funds.”
Utility companies in New York are being targeted over the state’s rapidly rising energy bills by Hochul, who proposed a series of oversight measures this week intended to keep those costs in check.
The extremist pro-Israel group Betar will dissolve its New York operations after settling with the state AG‘s office, which determined it engaged in “widespread persecution of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and Jewish New Yorkers” and critics of the Israeli government.
A years-long investigation into allegations that former correction officers were fraudulently hired in short-term positions by local municipalities so they could increase their retirement pensions resulted in its first arrest this week.
Bruce Blakeman, the likely Republican candidate for governor in New York, said the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was just one point of disagreement between him and Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.
Blakeman insisted that he’s a longtime supporter of the Buffalo Bills after Hochul apparently labeled him a “new fan” of the western New York team.
Hochul used her State of the State address to set up her 2026 re-election campaign, casting herself against the Trump administration and in sync with progressives who scored big wins last year with Mamdani’s election.
Hochul’s play-it-safe “State of the State” speech could be the prelude to yet another record-high budget for New York as critics from across the political spectrum cast doubt on her promise of “affordability” without raising taxes.
Hochul wants to open the nation’s first medical center for “cannabis care” that will offer residencies for medics-in-training wanting to pair their Hippocratic Oaths with hydroponic tokes.
The governor was blasted for her plan to expand gambling addiction programs while three new casinos are underway and the state rakes in a growing jackpot from legal betting.
As New York City opened enrollment for 3-K and pre-K yesterday, Mamdani took a swipe at Eric Adams for cutting funds and outreach efforts, accusing his predecessor of willfully keeping parents in the dark about the availability of free child care.
Mamdani signed an executive order calling on the Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice, Julie Su, and seven city agencies to make an inventory of those various fines, and sets a timeline under which some of them can be eliminated.
Following outrage from Mamdani over the arrest of a city council employee, the Department of Homeland Security shared that the individual arrested is an illegal immigrant with a previous arrest for assault.
Mamdani signed a new executive order directing his deputy mayor for economic justice to cut fines and red tape for small businesses.
Small business advocates in New York are excited that Mamdani is tackling the issue of excessive fees and fines, but they’ve heard similar promises before.
Manhattan prosecutors reduced the charges against two protesters who were arrested as activists confronted federal immigration agents at a parking garage near Canal Street in November.
Three nurses in the labor and delivery department at Mount Sinai Hospital have been fired for allegedly “sabotaging” emergency drills the hospital was running to prepare for the strike that began Monday, according to a spokesperson for the hospital.
Three years ago, the hospitals seemed taken by surprise that the nurses had actually gone on strike. Not this time.
Erik Duran, the NYPD sergeant accused of throwing a cooler at a man during a drug bust and killing him, unnecessarily used force to salvage an arrest gone wrong, the state AG’s office argued during opening statements at his trial in the Bronx yesterday.
A new lodge at the North Creek Ski Bowl for visitors at the Gore Mountain ski center opened on Friday after delays, setbacks and conflicts between a state authority and the town of Johnsburg.
The lawyer appointed last year as a special prosecutor in Albany County to review accusations of criminal wrongdoing by the state Department of Transportation in the Schoharie limo crash is nearing the end of his investigation.
The top counsel for Rensselaer County government failed to pay off his own legal bills, according to a lawsuit filed by a local law firm he once had on retainer.
A 62-year-old Albany woman was charged after she allegedly abandoned her small dog outside of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, deputies said.
As Schenectady looks to provide more affordable housing, a century-old, two-story church in the city’s Hamilton Hill neighborhood that has been vacant for decades may, in the future, help with that endeavor.
A 23-year-old Troy man was charged with a hate crime after deputies say he threatened and used slurs against a Jewish man earlier this month.
Four astronauts returned home to Earth today, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego after an earlier-than-scheduled departure from the International Space Station.
The astronauts, riding in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, were originally expected to return next month after a replacement crew arrived. But a medical issue involving one of them last week led NASA to bring them home early.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. Officials won’t identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
