Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
I didn’t really take the holidays off this year.
I mean, to be clear, I didn’t work Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but I had an assignment that required me to put in some hours on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, as well as many of the days leading up to, and immediately after, Jan. 1, 2026. (Still getting used to writing that).
To be sure, it wasn’t my usual jam-packed schedule, and there were plenty of down-time moments – meals with friends, mornings taken a little slower than usual, long runs. But I didn’t get a chance to completely unplug. Actually, I can’t remember the last time I actually did that, but perhaps that’s a topic for a different day.
Anyway, I was fairly checked in over the holidays, which is why it makes no sense to me that I’m still having trouble getting back into the groove now that the holidays are officially over.
Why does my brain feel like mush every time I try to prod it into high gear? It’s like I put on some mental weight that I am now desperately trying to shed…except I’m not entirely sure how that happened or how to put my brain on a diet.
Returning from time off always feels to me like jumping into a freezing cold pool. Even if you like that sort of thing, it’s still a relative shock to the system. And while getting your inbox to zero and returning all your missed voicemails are a modern-day phenomenon, I’m fairly sure that getting back into the post-holiday swing of things was never easy – not even in Medieval times.
Today, Jan. 7, is known as “Distaff Day”, which marked the official end of the Christmas festivities as women returned to their daily household chores – including the work of spinning. To do that, they would employ a tool known as a “distaff“, which was used in conjunction with a spindle, to turn wool or flax into yarn.
The work of spinning was so universally viewed as something women did that the word “distaff” became synonymous with women’s work. It was also used to refer to the female side of the family as well as female-focused events (primarily horse races).
Distaff Day, also known as “Saint Distaff’s Day” (even though there was no such saint), “Roc Day”, or “Rock Day”, is still observed by modern-day fiber artists (spinners, crocheters, knitters, weavers, etc.)
If you weren’t aware, knitting and crocheting in particular, have been having something of a moment among the cool kids, and are known in some circles as “emotional support crafts“, along with needlepoint, painting, origami, collaging and scrapbooking, and working with clay.
For men, the day to return to their normal labor routines was Plough Day, which marks the beginning of the agricultural year and falls on the Monday after Epiphany. So, depending on the calendar, men might have gotten a few days more off than their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters. It wasn’t all dour work and toil, though, when Plough Day and Distaff Day coincided, apparently people got up to some highjacks and merriment.
We’re at the tail end of a winter weather advisory that was scheduled to run from yesterday afternoon through early this morning. The rain/freezing rain is going to continue into the early afternoon, with temperatures holding in the low-to-mid 30s.
A veritable heat wave is on the horizon, with temperatures rising into the low 40s over the next several days. I am really looking forward to this, though the melting and potential flooding situation is, of course, not good.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump said that Republicans must win the 2026 midterm elections or else he will get impeached by Democrats.
“You gotta win the midterms ’cause, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be – I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump said at a retreat for House Republican lawmakers in Washington. “I’ll get impeached.”
Trump also imitated a transgender weightlifter breezing through reps while addressing House Republicans during their policy retreat.
The midterms do have big stakes, and the months leading up to them are likely to show off the conflicting opinions within the House GOP about what kind of priorities to pursue.
Trump said that Venezuela is going to turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., an announcement that follows the recent operation in which U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The White House said that the US military could seize Greenland — after Trump again expressed interest in acquiring the Danish-ruled island.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said that he is taking Trump’s threats about taking over Greenland “seriously.”
The celebrated banjo player Béla Fleck announced that he had withdrawn from three concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, becoming the latest artist to forgo playing at the venue amid changes from the Trump administration.
The sudden death of California GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa cast a pall over the first day of the new session of Congress yesterday, when House Republicans mourned their colleague and also watched their tiny majority dwindle to the bare minimum of 218 votes.
Gov. Kathy Hochul threatened to sue the Trump administration if it moves forward with a plan to cut child care and social service funding to New York.
The Hochul administration is being accused of covering up crimes in prisons by downgrading attacks committed by inmates against guards as “harassment” or “disruptive behavior” instead of assaults.
The former president of the State Troopers Police Benevolent Association pleaded guilty to a felony grand larceny count, signaling an end to a yearslong investigation of the union’s finances that uncovered wider evidence of alleged fraud and misuse of funds.
Democrats in the Capital Region last year played a pivotal role in sponsoring what Hochul’s administration called “landmark legislation” that sets a new age limit and labeling requirements for kratom products in New York.
Brooklyn Assemblyman Kalman Yeger introduced three bills last year, making him the state lawmaker who proposed the fewest pieces of legislation in the Legislature.
For the second time in three weeks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing intense scrutiny for the years-old social media behavior of a high-level appointee — an episode that once again forced him to answer for his vetting processes.
Mamdani stood by his new top tenant advocate, Cea Weaver, after her past inflammatory social media posts sparked a firestorm — and a warning shot from the Trump administration.
“Mamdani, Weaver and their fellow travelers might enjoy fantasizing about a collective utopia without property rights. In reality, renters are going to be left fending for themselves as they navigate ever-dilapidating housing conditions.”
Weaver’s mother is a professor at a prestigious college and has a $1.6 million home. Celia Applegate, teaches German studies at Vanderbilt University and owns a pricey classic Craftsman home just south of the main strip in Nashville, Tennessee.
Hochul and Mamdani are split over a key congressional race in the 10th District, pitting incumbent Dan Goldman, backed by the governor, against former City Comptroller Brad Lander, who quickly picked up the mayor’s endorsement yesterday.
Former “Friends” actor Michael Rapaport says that he plans to challenge Mamdani despite the next race being 1,400 days away.
Mamdani swore in his new fire department commissioner yesterday in front of a packed house of New York’s bravest. The ceremony cemented Lillian Bonsignore, 56, as the second woman and the first openly gay individual to lead the department.
Mamdani is already steamrolling one obstacle in his path — the notorious Williamsburg Bridge bump. He helped transportation department workers pave over the bike lane bump on Delancey Street at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
With a heave of a shovel, the new mayor spread a steaming heap of asphalt on top of “the bump” — the name frustrated cyclists have given to a short ramp near the Manhattan side of the bridge.
Mamdani put New York City’s troubled jail system on the clock to end solitary confinement — issuing yet another executive order to unravel his predecessor’s actions.
Mamdani directed city agencies to make plans to comply with rules governing health and safety at the facilities, and said they must work to end solitary confinement.
To defend himself against sexual harassment and retaliation accusations, former City Hall adviser Tim Pearson has racked up a taxpayer-funded legal bill with a private firm that now tops $620,000, prompting calls Mamdani’s administration to review.
Former Mayor Eric Adams got snubbed yesterday as his socialist successor and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch triumphantly unveiled new data showing gun violence dropped to record lows in 2025.
New York City had its safest year ever for gun violence in 2025, which had the fewest shootings and shooting victims in the city’s recorded history, the NYPD announced.
Youth violence across New York City hit historic highs during 2025, with staggering numbers of shooters and shooting victims falling under the age of 18, NYPD data released yesterday shows.
Mamdani has yet to name a permanent commissioner to lead the city’s Health Department. It is the last major public health opening in his administration after a slew of appointments in the days before and after he took office.
Incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin is expected to tap Miguelina Camilo, a Bronx Democratic Party operative and onetime state Senate candidate, to serve as the chamber’s chief of staff.
Socialist tenant organizer Samantha Kattan has filed to run for Assembly District 37 in western Queens, hoping to succeed Assembly Member Claire Valdez who’s planning to run for Congress.
A Queens man is facing felony hate crime charges after prosecutors say he used social media to threaten Jewish and Israeli New Yorkers, along with members of the NYPD and federal officials.
The New York State Nurses Association withdrew its plans to stage strikes at five safety-net hospitals in Brooklyn and Staten Island, the union said Tuesday, avoiding major workforce disruptions at some of the city’s most cash-strapped medical institutions.
Former state Sen. Tom Duane claims the New York City Housing Authority’s plan to have a private developer raze and rebuild a public housing complex in Chelsea is illegal.
Governors Ball returns to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park this June 5 through 7, and the full lineup of more than 60 artists was released yesterday, with Lorde, Kali Uchis and A$AP Rocky among the headliners.
A court dispute over the lines of the 11th Congressional District, which includes Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn, represents one of New York Democrats’ few hopes of drawing maps in their favor for the 2026 midterms.
City of Schenectady investigators are trying to determine the cause of a fire Monday afternoon in the Hamilton Hill neighborhood that started in an electric car and spread to a nearby home and commercial building, according to Fire Chief George Burns.
Vito Caselnova, a former Vermont sheriff’s deputy charged with attempted murder, assault and other crimes after a police-involved shootout in Saratoga Springs while he was off duty in 2022, pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a firearm in a sensitive location.
The Silver Parrot, a decades-old establishment at Stuyvesant Plaza, will close at the end of February, its owner announced in a Facebook post Monday.
A promotional video that claims Albany County is “more than just another place on the map” makes its case in a strange way: with generic stock footage from places as far away as French Polynesia.
Schenectady City Clerk Samanta Mykoo reported to work Monday despite an attempt late Friday afternoon by the city to keep her off the job until City Council members can decide whether to reappoint her or pick someone else for the job.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
