Good morning, it’s Monday, and for no reason that I can discern – other than the fact that this food item is insanely popular, not only in the U.S., but around the globe – it’s National Pizza Day.
Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest pizza-ordering days of the year, with more than 2 million pies sold on the day of the Big Game in 2022. It’s right up there with Halloween, New Year’s Day and the night before Thanksgiving, which are also very popular pizza nights, for a variety of reasons (basically, it’s a fairly affordable, fast, and reliable meal that is nearly universally popular and is easy to clean up after).
It would make sense, then, for National Pizza Day to correspond with one – of more – of these aforementioned big days, but instead it lands on the rather arbitrary date of Feb. 9, which definitely isn’t Halloween, New Year’s Day, or pre-Thanksgiving, but COULD be Super Bowl Sunday, depending on how the calendar shakes out.
Not this year, sadly. However, as it turns out, there’s a good chance if you live in New York that pizza didn’t play a role in your Super Bowl experience.
Though there is definitely a surge in orders, the Empire State isn’t even in the top ten when it comes to states that order the most ‘za on Super Bowl Sunday, according to a study published by Action Network. That honor goes to Delaware, followed by Michigan and Pennsylvania. New York ranks somewhere in the middle, at No. 29.
Despite our claim to the supposed “best” pizza in all the nation, New York also isn’t the overall top pizza-ordering state from an annual perspective.
That distinction belongs to Iowa, of all places, according to Talker Research. Overall, about 3 billion – yes, BILLION – pizzas are sold in the U.S. every year, which works out to about 46 slices per person, and a fair number of those are pepperoni, which is the most popular pizza topping by far.
The cost of pizza – like pretty much everything these days – is slowly rising (kinda like dough, if you see what I did there), though it is possible to score a $1 slice in New York City, such deals are becoming rarer by the year. According to Slice, which is an online pizza-ordering platform, the national average price of a large cheese pie is a whopping $17.
Perhaps as a result of the increased cost, or the growing popularity of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Americans’ pizza eating habits have changed. They’re ordering smaller pies and fewer toppings, the New York Times reported last December. Pizza is a $50 billion-a-year industry, but it’s under strain, and also facing competition from a whole host of other fast food options – from chicken wings and wraps to bowls and burritos.
Pizza is considered an Italian creation, but the practice of putting toppings on flatbreads dates back centuries. The modern-day version is believed to have originated in Italy’s Campania region, which is home to the city of Naples, where flatbreads topped with some combination of oil, cheese, tomatoes, anchovies and garlic, were a cheap, filling and quick meal sold by street vendors.
Italian immigrants brought pizza with them when they traveled to, and settled in, America. One of the first documented pizzerias in the U.S. was opened on Spring Street in Manhattan in the early 1900s. Lombardi’s is still operating today in the New York City neighborhood known as Little Italy, though not in its original location.
There are about three dozen varieties of pizza served around the world – from Chicago’s deep dish to Detroit’s grandma-style (square) version to the infamous – and controversial pineapple-and-ham monstrosity (sorry, a little editorializing there) known as Hawaiian pizza.
Personally, I’m a big fan of white pizza (garlic, cheese, without a tomato in sight), but there’s very few types – other than the aforementioned Hawaiian – that I would turn down. We have a habit of buying a few slices and keeping them in the freezer in case of emergencies, which I highly recommend.
It looks like we are moving out of the latest deep freeze, with temperatures slowing rising into the 30s as the week progresses. Today will still be fairly cold, however, with highs only in the low 20s. We’ll see mostly sunny skies with a few afternoon clouds.
In the headlines…
As a Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security approaches, Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer on Sunday to a deal to keep the department running.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries poured cold water on the idea of Democrats accepting anything less than their full 10 demands of Republicans to prevent the Department of Homeland Security from shutting down in five days.
Even Republican lawmakers were shocked after Trump reshared on social media a video in which former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama were depicted as apes.
Trump told reporters he didn’t see the entire video before it was shared on his social media platform and suggested he won’t apologize for it. “I just, I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud,” the president said.
Trump deflected blame for the video’s posting, causing new speculation in his orbit about whether the blame lay with the president or his aide Natalie Harp.
Jeffries’ response to the video debacle, which he posted on Instagram: “F—k Donald Trump.” Jeffries, the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress, defended the Obamas in his video, calling them “brilliant” Americans.
Trump bashed Team USA Olympic skier Hunter Hess for expressing “mixed emotions” while representing the Stars and Stripes at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic games.
“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, on Sunday urged Americans to get vaccinated for measles as outbreaks spread across several U.S. states.
“Take the vaccine, please,” Oz told anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We have a solution for our problem.”
The problem is the rise of measles cases steep enough to jeopardize the country’s measles-elimination status earned in 2000, when the disease was officially declared eradicated in the U.S.
A purported ransom note in Nancy Guthrie’s apparent kidnapping demanded $6 million. Savannah Guthrie shared a video Saturday alongside her siblings, telling any kidnappers, “We will pay” for the safe return of Nancy.
It took more than a decade, but the Seattle Seahawks and their fans finally got their revenge Sunday for the famous Malcolm Butler play, defeating the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, CA, to earn their second title in franchise history.
In the process, the Seahawks denied the Patriots what would have been a league-leading seventh Super Bowl win.
Fresh off last week’s historic Album of the Year Grammy win, Spanish-rapping Bad Bunny brought his singular stamp of joy to Levi’s Stadium during Super Bowl LX, starting in a sugar cane field, in what many termed a cultural game changer.
Trump slammed the Super Bowl LX halftime show, headlined by Bad Bunny, as “one of the worst, EVER” and “an affront to the Greatness of America.”
Millions tuned into Turning Point USA’s “All-American” halftime show headlined by Kid Rock and held in honor of its slain founder Charlie Kirk — which was streamed as a rival to the official Super Bowl halftime show.
A Manhattan judge has stopped the Trump administration from freezing funding for the Hudson River Tunnel project in an eleventh-hour ruling.
The order by Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jeannette Vargas granted emergency relief to New York and New Jersey, prohibiting the federal government from continuing to withhold funds.
Democrats across New York chose Gov. Kathy Hochul and running mate Adrienne Adams to be the party’s designated gubernatorial ticket in November, and otherwise nominated the incumbents for statewide races.
In her acceptance speech, Hochul seemed eager to portray herself as a leader ready to stand up to the Trump administration, as she vies for re-election in November.
A year ago, storm clouds hovered over Hochul’s road to re-election. Now, the Buffalo-born governor’s road to a second term appears far smoother.
For an organization with a reputation for eyebrow-raising political decisions, the Brooklyn Democratic Party surprised even its most ardent critics last week when it temporarily unendorsed – and then re-endorsed – Hochul, the state’s most powerful Democrat.
The New York Working Families Party on Saturday opted to go with placeholders in the races for governor and state comptroller, rather than choose one of the actual candidates running.
New York Democrats signed onto a measure denouncing ICE and supporting legislation to make New York a sanctuary state as they hope fury against the agency will be a winning electoral issue come November’s midterm election.
Republicans are slamming Hochul’s running mate, former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, for championing legislation to allow non-citizens to vote in Big Apple municipal elections.
Backing Hochul, who is now on a glidepath to a second full term, underscores the political coming-of-age for the party’s ascendant democratic socialists — exemplified by a calculation that it’s easier to collaborate than adhere to a rigid political litmus test.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement of Hochul for reelection has sparked a backlash from progressives, including some of the mayor’s closest allies.
Hochul signed the Medical in Dying Act into law on Friday, according to a statement from the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Amy Paulin.
Hochul, whose mother died from symptoms associated with ALS, had announced in December that she would sign the bill after the Legislature returned to Albany and made amendments to the bill that the governor said would ensure the law is not abused.
Hochul’s proposal to fast-track certain housing projects by peeling back some environmental regulations is dividing some of the state’s most prominent climate advocacy groups.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is among several candidates who are under consideration to be the gubernatorial running mate of Bruce Blakeman as the GOP’s three-day nominating convention is scheduled to begin today on Long Island.
Blakeman will reportedly tap Fulton County Sheriff Richard Giardino, who is known for his tough-on-crime policies and staunch pro-gun rights stance, as his running mate.
News organizations in New York should have to disclose the use of artificial intelligence in published content and cannot use the work of their employees to train AI systems without public notice, according to legislation sponsored by Democrats in Albany.
Efforts to expand the use of self-driving vehicles in New York still face headwinds, including concerns from labor unions that represent transportation sector workers.
Across New York, thousands of children have lost child care because while the state expanded eligibility for child care subsidies and sent more funding to counties to help cover those costs, it did not send enough.
As the state opens new avenues for people to drink, lawmakers are proposing to tax those same sales to pay for addiction treatment — an acknowledgment that expanding access will likely create more people who need help.
The State University of New York’s campuses desperately need repairs due to a $10 billion backlog in “critical maintenance” projects, Chancellor John King Jr. said.
A medical review board for the state Commission of Correction determined that a 39-year-old man who died after suffering a rupture in his digestive system at Clinton County jail was subjected to “inhumane” treatment, and that his death was preventable.
Retiring Manhattan Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler hopes his endorsement will carry Assemblymember Micah Lasher past a crowded primary field of candidates hoping to succeed him – including a Kennedy.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is backing Kennedy family member Jack Schlossberg in the upcoming race for Nadler’s seat.
The former speaker, a prodigious fund-raiser and shrewd campaign strategist, seldom intervenes in primaries but has made an exception for a Kennedy before.
Amtrak canceled or delayed dozens of trips along busy Northeast routes in recent days as it struggled to keep its fleet running amid subfreezing temperatures.
The death toll from a bitter cold spell in New York City climbed to 18 yesterday, as many New Yorkers hunkered down at home while others braved the outdoors despite dangerously low wind chills.
Mamdani implemented additional measures across the city to shelter vulnerable New Yorkers amid the brutally cold temperatures this past weekend.
The Mamdani administration dropped the snowball by failing to recruit enough emergency shovelers for the recent winter storm that dropped nearly a foot of snow on the Big Apple, critics said.
The Trump administration move to undercut Mamdani’s plan for free buses does more than threaten a marquee campaign proposal: It underscores how fragile the détente between the White House and the nation’s largest city is.
When Mamdani met Trump in the Oval Office last fall, the 34-year-old democratic socialist steered their private conversation toward an unlikely subject: New York City zoning laws.
Mamdani issued an executive order he says will protect New Yorkers from “abusive immigration enforcement” by the Trump administration and uphold sanctuary city laws.
Mamdani signed the order, which he called “a sweeping reaffirmation of commitment to our immigrant neighbors,” during Friday’s Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library in Bryant Park.
Trump’s administration blasted Mamdani on Friday for issuing an executive order reaffirming the city’s sanctuary laws, contending the directive will make the city “less safe.”
Mamdani wants to make classes smaller across the largest U.S. school system. Like other parts of his agenda, it’s a costly task.
A new era is under way at Mamdani’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services. A significant reorganization at the department was to be announced on Friday impacting at least 13 employees, with seven expected to be terminated.
At the annual “Tin Cup Day” tomorrow, where mayors testify about the upcoming state budget, Mamdani and his aides will ask Albany leaders for tax hikes — and potentially other forms of aid — as part of the final spending plan.
Two city offices with deep ties to New York’s business community remain without permanent directors, and one is keyed up to see just how far the new mayor plans to reshape its role.
Three months after launching a jobs portal and more than a month after Mamdani was sworn into office, just 31 people who applied through it have been hired to work inside of City Hall, according to mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec.
A federal judge has ordered the release of a man swept up during a chaotic Chinatown immigration raid last fall, ruling that ICE failed to follow its own rules — and criticizing the agency’s claim of broad stop‑and‑detain authority.
When New Yorkers finally emerge from the freakish cold of recent weeks, they’ll face another outsize side effect of the wild weather: their utility bills.
Hundreds of Brooklyn residents will have no power or heat through this morning as temperatures plunged into the single digits following a devastating outage that started late Saturday evening.
Hundreds of lawsuits accusing New York City of failing to protect children from sexual abuse in its juvenile detention centers are moving forward again after months of legal limbo.
The owner of a former missile silo in Lewis, who is seeking to test-fire large military cannons in the Adirondack Park, is suing the state agency that would permit his project, alleging the process has been “tainted” by ethical conflicts.
A new management group has taken over operations of a nursing home and rehabilitation facility in Columbia County that has been beset by allegations of neglect and poor ratings in recent years.
Department heads in County Executive Steve Laughlin’s administration are no longer expected to attend County Legislature committee meetings, sessions where local lawmakers traditionally ask them about funding requests and policy proposals.
The size has nearly doubled — and the cost has tripled — over the past two years for the proposed Capital Region Aquatic Center, a competitive diving-and-swimming center that was first floated as an idea over a decade ago.
Citing “significant concerns” in the Saratoga Springs finance department, the department’s new commissioner is asking City Hall officials to pause hiring and new projects as her staff works to reconcile the books.
When all is said — and, crucially, done — the City of Albany’s response to the long-duration storm that dropped around 15 inches of snow from Jan. 25 to Jan. 26 will have taken almost a month, officials said Friday.
Last month, the Times Union shared a survey that asked residents what they want to change the most in the Capital Region to build a better community. The results are in.
Shortly before noon on Saturday, a crowd of demonstrators made their way to the small area in front of the Troy Atrium at the corner of Broadway and Third Street to rally against the tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
A man who wore a clown mask and wielded a chainsaw during a fight last year in Cohoes was sentenced Friday in Albany County Court.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
