Good morning, it’s Monday.
We are deep in the throes of unpredictable upstate spring. Looking into the future – like, say, at least the next week – I am not seeing much to feel encouraged by in the weather department.
This past weekend was not great: windy, wet, chilly. And the foreseeable future will bring much of the same.
Let’s just get it over with here – today will be downright disappointing, with highs only reaching into the high 30s and a mix of rain and snow expected in the afternoon. Things MIGHT look up as the week progresses, but given the wild swings we’ve experienced of late, I’ve learned that it’s best not to look too far into the future.
In this weird in-between stage of seasons, I am finding it difficult to figure out what to eat. The heavy, hearty and warming soups and stews that were so appetizing and comforting during the depths of the winter deep freeze are no longer appetizing – especially as we prepare to shed some layers and show a little more skin.
That said, it’s still too cold out, in my humble opinion, for warm weather staples like salads and smoothies. (I know that some people enjoy these year-round, and somewhere along the line I became an iced coffee person, but generally I prefer warm foods when it’s cold out and cold foods when it’s warm).
When I can’t figure out what to eat, I find myself gravitating toward what the internet has come to call a “snack plate”. (I refuse to use the term “girl dinner” as it is just flat-out insulting).
Usually, for me, this involves cut up vegetables, sliced cheese, hummus and/or guacamole, dried or fresh fruit and an assortment of crackers. Sometimes, if I’m feeling really inspired, I might also whip up a tuna or egg salad for extra protein. (Yes, I know it’s cold; I never claimed to be 100 percent consistent).
I always have a variety of crackers on hand – not only for my own snack plate assembly, but also in case company happens to drop by unannounced. Crackers generally keep well, especially if you store them in an air-tight container or bag, but some have a longer shelf life than others. I have had particularly good luck in this department with Melba Toast.
Melba Toast, if you’re not familiar, is, at its most basic, bread that has been very thinly sliced and then twice toasted to make it extra crispy.
Though fairly dry and unappealing on it own, Melba Toast is a lovely accompaniment to a wide range of things – soup, dip, cheese, pate, hummus, etc. It has the benefit of being fairly low calorie, which is why it has come to be considered – for better or worse – a diet food staple.
Melba Toast’s origin story is an interesting one. It was reportedly created for Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, (nee Helen Porter Mitchell), who fell ill while staying at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1897 and needed to eat lightly. Toast was the chief item on her limited diet, but the standard version wasn’t thin enough for her liking. (Melba was known for being something of a diva).
The Savoy’s chef, the famed Auguste Escoffier, came up with the idea of an easily digestible, extra-thin and extra crunchy version of toast – sort of toast, lite, if you will. The rest, as they say, is history. Though the delicacy was first named “Toast Marie” in honor of hotelier Cesar Ritz’s wife, it was later renamed in Dame Melba’s honor.
Melba Toast isn’t the only foodstuff named after the Victoria-era opera singer. There’s also Peach Melba, also created by Escoffier, which involves poached peaches, vanilla ice cream, and raspberry sauce – I guess for when she was feeling less infirm.
For no particular reason that I can discern, today is National Melba Toast Day. I plan on celebrating with a snack plate.
Since we’ve already dispensed with the (extremely underwhelming) weather report, let’s get down to business.
In the headlines…
An Air Canada Express regional jet collided with a Port Authority fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late last night, killing the plane’s two pilots and shutting down all flights at the airport, officials said.
Forty-one passengers and crew members were taken to the hospital, said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Kathryn Garcia – 32 of them had been released, and that some of the others were seriously injured.
The airport will be closed until 2 p.m. Eastern time today, the Federal Aviation Administration said, disrupting operations at one of the United States’ busiest domestic airports.
Heart-pounding audio captured the frantic moments before Sunday’s fatal collision involving an Air Canada passenger plane and a firefighting truck at LaGuardia airport – with one air traffic controller admitting after they “messed up.”
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will order federal immigration officers to take a role in airport security starting today unless Democrats agree on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
The president said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will help with airport security for “as long as it takes” as passengers complain of longer wait times amid the partial government shutdown.
Tom Homan, Trump’s chief border official, cast the operation largely as one to help ease long security lines. The Homeland Security Department said 14 airports across the country would be involved.
New York politicians and immigration advocates reacted to Trump and Homan stating that ICE agents will assist the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) starting today as human congestion at airports continues to swell.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said yesterday that there was “no end in sight” for the partial government shutdown that has shuttered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 36 days.
The TSA funding crisis is wreaking havoc at Big Apple airports, with frustrated air travelers waiting up to three hours just to check in for their flights.
Former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who brought politically explosive indictments as a special counsel examining Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election, and concluded that he could neither absolve nor accuse Trump of a crime, has died at 81.
Mueller’s family confirmed the death in a statement but did not say where he died or specify the cause. Last August, the family disclosed publicly that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2021.
Trump explicitly celebrated the news about Mueller’s passing, writing on social media, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
A new statue of Christopher Columbus went up on the White House grounds yesterday that was built using pieces from a monument to the Italian explorer that protesters destroyed six years ago.
Gov. Kathy Hochul moved to alter and delay the implementation of New York State’s landmark 2019 climate law, which calls for gradually decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by certain deadlines.
“We need more time,” Hochul wrote in an editorial that was published on Friday morning in The Empire Report, a news site that covers state politics. “So much has radically changed since the Climate Act was enacted, necessitating common-sense.
Hochul’s proposed changes to the CLCPA would preserve the transition of the state’s economy to low-carbon energy sources while eliminating requirements to comply with the short-term mandates of the law.
New York has received final approval from the Trump administration to reverse the state’s expansion of the Essential Plan, Hochul said, a move that will significantly reduce enrollment in the public insurance program and help the state offset federal funding cuts.
Contract negotiations with a pair of powerful transit unions are looming over Hochul’s re-election bid. TWU, whose Local 100 represents some 40,000 subway and bus workers, launched a scathing TV ad attacking the governor that ran on St. Patrick’s Day.
New Yorkers could more easily see the stars in their backyards if a bill aiming to reduce artificial lighting at night across the state gets approved.
Hudson Valley GOP Rep. Mike Lawler’s campaign fund spent more than $150,000 on limousines, private boat charters, five-star hotels, celebrity restaurants, and ritzy resorts, financial filings reveal.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent nearly $19,000 in campaign cash last year on Boston-based Dr. Brian Boyle, a shrink who specializes in controversial ketamine therapy.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife was deeply involved in a democratic socialist activist campaign pushing political candidates critical of Israel and backing a controversial bill targeting pro-Israel charities.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has agreed to headline a previously unannounced rally in New York City on March 29, lending his star power to Mamdani’s push to raises taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents.
Mamdani and Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, listed on their schedules that they intended to aid in food distribution for Passover at Chasdei Lev in Brooklyn yesterday.
A new crop of state lobbyists who, having cut their teeth working on Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, have now shifted their focus to lobbying state lawmakers to align with his agenda.
Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, head of the nonprofit Street Vendor Project, is expected to be announced to serve as executive director of the new Office of Street Vendor Services, within the city’s Department of Small Business Services.
Mamdani’s first Ramadan in City Hall has put his Muslim identity at the center of New York politics — deepening his connection with supporters while fueling a wave of backlash from critics on the right.
Mamdani is facing furious backlash after breaking his Ramadan fast with Muslim jailbirds on notorious Rikers Island – and describing it one of his “most meaningful evenings” since taking office.
“It was a night that will stay with me for quite some time,” the city’s first Muslim mayor said Friday on X about his under the radar and historic visit on Monday, which by Saturday sparked a firestorm of outrage.
Comptroller Mark Levine said Mamdani’s plan to draw down $1.2 billion in reserves to balance the budget could make things even worse for taxpayers when it’s time to cook up next year’s spending plan.
New York City parks advocates are outraged over Mamdani’s budget proposal, and plan to give him a piece of their mind today.
Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency issued a negative outlook for the Big Apple’s bond rating Friday — following suit with Moody’s. which made the same projection two weeks ago.
More than half of the NYPD’s Joint Terrorism Task Force cops can retire right now, along with thousands of sergeants, lieutenants, and captains, worrying officials about the future of terror and crime fighting in Gotham.
The thaw after this year’s unusually icy winter has caused havoc on the roads — and has lead New Yorkers to make a record-setting number of pothole complaints to the city, with 22,887 pothole reports made in the Big Apple through March 21.
Historic Foley Square in the middle of some of Manhattan’s most storied public institutions is filthy with signs of neglect — from destroyed public art to defective street lamps and “dangerous” broken pavement.
Penn Station’s long-promised makeover could still include private real-estate deals, according to New York City’s “Train Daddy’’, Andy Byford, prompting a watchdog group to warn that may be bad news for Big Apple taxpayers.
Travelers headed to New York City-area airports should brace for long lines that snake around the airport as a partial federal government shutdown enters its second month, leaving thousands of TSA workers without pay.
Federal prosecutors in the Luigi Mangione case are urging a judge to reject his team’s request to delay the trial and are calling for “reasonable” adjustments to the jury selection process instead, according to court records.
Prosecutors say a Brooklyn man’s sentencing last week to 25 years in prison for murder stems from New York’s first trial under new anonymous jury rules that allowed the court to keep the jurors’ names from the defendant.
In the last quarter century, New York City’s most populous borough has quietly established itself as the state’s hotbed for illegal election activity involving nonprofit organizations.
Syracuse is working to finalize an agreement to make Gerry McNamara the next head coach of the Orange basketball program, ESPN reported.
The Orange are finalizing a deal to hire McNamara as their new head coach, bringing home a favorite son who helped Syracuse win its only national championship as its freshman point guard in 2003.
A violent encounter unfolded at a hip-hop concert at the MVP Arena Saturday night, according to the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.
The town of Northampton is considering a local law that could suspend construction of the Adirondack Park’s first utility-sized battery energy storage system.
Community members gathered at the Mercy Auditorium on the St. Peter’s Hospital campus in Albany on Friday for a meeting about the closure of the nursing and rehab center, which had provided subacute and long-term care for nearly seven decades.
Some Schenectady neighborhoods that were redlined to stop development during a racist and anti-immigrant wave a century ago are still divided along those lines in today’s school attendance zones, a report found.
An assistant coach at the Greater Amsterdam School District was fired by the school’s board of education last week, two days after he was charged with sexually assaulting a student at another school district.
The Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center has acquired 600 acres of wooded property in Onchiota in one of the largest returns of private land to Indigenous people in state history.
The entry to the Avenue of the Pines, the iconic Saratoga Spa State Park boulevard, has lost some of its tree canopy as part of the park’s $4.4 million restoration to the Lincoln Baths building.
A former executive director of the Fulton Montgomery Chamber of Commerce was arrested by State Police on Friday after allegedly stealing over $470,000 from the organization.
Schenectady Rabbi Matt Cutler was among the targets of what State Police say were social media threats targeting Jewish people that led to a hate crime arrest.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
