Good morning, it’s Friday and a brand-new month is upon us!
I am girding myself to see a lot of “rabbit rabbit” content in my social media feeds today.
If you want to go very deep on how this superstitious practice of greeting the first day of the month came to be, click here. Also, if you’re one of those people who follows the “rabbit rabbit” tradition, you’re in good company. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is also an adherent, as was FDR.
While I am happy to welcome the weekend, it’s going to be sort of a bummer from a weather perspective. Today through Sunday will bring more clouds than sun, with temperatures stuck in the mid-to-high 50s.
Tonight, we’re going to see some rain showers, too. Hopefully, the flowers are happy. My lawn is growing gangbusters, so I guess there’s that to be thankful for – especially since I’m not the one responsible for cutting it.
The temperature trend is definitely going in the right direction, which is to say up. As the season changes and things get warmer, I find myself slowly changing my eating habits, gravitating away from heavy, comforting, hot foods like soups and stews, and more in the direction of lighter, cooler fare like salads.
A salad is supposedly healthy and even diet food, but it also can be a calorie bomb. There’s so much STUFF added to salads these days – fruit, cheese, meat, avocado, etc. – not to mention copious amounts of oil or mayo-based dressing, that you might as well be eating a burger and fries.
A well composed salad is a work of art. Some of the best salads I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming were eaten in France (I guess no surprise there) and were just the freshest possible ingredients – maybe a few leaves of lettuce and some chopped herbs – dressed lightly with some high-quality oil, a little mustard, a touch of vinegar and salt. Delicious.
I have also had some very good caesar salads created in the old school manner, which is to say, table-side, but also some terrible and almost inedible, overdressed versions that were sadly lacking in the anchovy department. I am firmly on Team Anchovy.
The word “salad” stems from Latin for “salted,” which makes sense when you find out that it was the ancient Greeks and Romans who first came up with the concept of seasoning greens and vegetables with oil, vinegar and salt. This concoction was believed to help the stomach settle after a large meal.
Somewhere along the line, things went seriously sideways and the word “salad” came to encompass not just veggies but meats, pasta, and even Jell-O. Since I’m rapidly running out of space, if you want to go really deep on salad and its origins, click here, here, or here.
May is National Salad Month, which, rather amusingly, was created by the Association for Dressing and Sauces, which I am tickled to report is indeed an actual thing. To kick off this month, May 1 is National Salad Day, created by Dole Salads (RIP, and now sold to og Holdco LLC ) to encourage healthy eating as well as “experimentation and culinary enjoyment.”
This is not to be confused with the so-called “salad days” – a period of youthful innocence and carefree idealism that is supposedly the best period of one’s life, as per William Shakespeare, who used the phrase in Antony and Cleopatra. Specifically, Cleopatra recalls her youth, saying: “My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood.”
Since we already dispensed with the weather up top, let’s get right down to business.
In the headlines…
President Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. Casey Means, his pick for surgeon general, whose confirmation was stalled on Capitol Hill amid opposition, including from some Republicans, in part over her views on vaccines.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that he is nominating Dr. Nicole B. Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth, a branch of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
Trump has signed an executive order to create retirement accounts for tens of millions of workers who don’t currently have access to a 401(k) or another workplace plan.
The House voted to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, putting an end to the agency’s record 76-day shutdown.
House lawmakers agreed to send the Senate’s 45-day extension of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 spy program to President Trump’s desk, thanks to a shocking number of reps who didn’t vote.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress Trump does not have to comply with a law requiring presidents to seek congressional authorization to continue a war beyond 60 days because the cease-fire agreement with Iran has paused the clock.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer considered the Maine governor, Janet Mills, his top recruit for winning the majority. Critics said her collapse showed he is out of touch with the party’s voters.
Schumer and Graham Platner, the party’s now presumed candidate in Maine’s crucial Senate race, talked by telephone yesterday after Mills, Schumer’s favored candidate, abruptly suspended her campaign.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen defended Platner, who has faced criticism for past controversial online posts and a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, saying that “people should have second chances.”
The Congressional Progressive Caucus this week unveiled their new agenda ahead of the midterm elections to demonstrate a path for how the Democratic Party can tackle cost of living issues facing millions of Americans.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined two other Democrats to vote against a bipartisan bill to ensure rotisserie chickens are covered by the federal food stamp program.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking to pass a bill that would require so-called “super speeders” to install speed-limiting devices. Its fate is tied to state budget negotiations with the Legislature, which has so far failed to pass the measure.
New York is set to pass its most extreme sanctuary policies yet – as Hochul and Albany Democrats hone in on a deal that could impose sweeping bans on cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.
More than a half-decade after Jeffrey Epstein’s death, the pursuit of justice — and of financial damages — has found its way to the New York State Capitol.
Two women who have accused Epstein of sexual misconduct are expected to appear in Albany next week as advocates push for broader civil remedies tied to the latest disclosures in the Epstein files.
A suicide note purportedly written by Epstein in a Manhattan jail has been kept secret for nearly seven years, locked up in a New York courthouse.
More than three dozen state lawmakers are calling on Hochul to pardon ex-NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran of his manslaughter conviction – slamming the case against him as a “blatant miscarriage of justice.”
Thousands of students across New York State this week were unable to finish annual standardized tests after a technological issue disrupted the computer-based exams for the second consecutive year.
Democratic Socialists of America went right to the governor’s doorstep — her Midtown office — to demand more taxes on higher-income New Yorkers.
Queens Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar withstood a challenge to her position on the Democratic primary ballot after a judge dismissed on procedural grounds a lawsuit from her opponent claiming her campaign submitted hundreds of forged signatures.
The proposed pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes could generate nearly $200 million less than promised – and cost New York City roughly $40 million a year in part due to an exodus of wealthy residents, according to a study released yesterday.
The report from City Comptroller Mark Levine’s office cast doubt on the proposal’s projected $500 million in revenue, noting a similar tax in Vancouver, Canada, prompted property owners to rent, sell or even live full-time in their second homes.
Applications are now open for “The Little Apple,” the city’s first free, full-day, full-year, on-site childcare pilot program for municipal workers in Manhattan, Mamdani said.
The Upper West Side store at West 72nd Street and Broadway is closing temporarily for “major renovation plans” starting next month.
A newly unveiled permanent public artwork in Lower Manhattan that was more than a decade in the making pays homage to the historic “Little Syria” community that once thrived there.
The Archdiocese of New York has proposed paying $800 million to settle claims from the 1,300 people who say they were sexually abused as minors by priests and lay staff, according to lawyers representing 300 accusers.
More than a dozen malnourished toucans — some with broken tails and legs — have gotten their bright colors back nearly a year after being rescued from an inhumane Mexico-US trafficking ring and nursed back to health at the Bronx Zoo.
Former Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin is on track to avoid any primary opposition in his bid for the Democratic nomination to run against GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino this fall.
A Guilderland man will serve six-and-a-half to 13 years in prison after being convicted in Albany County’s first-ever deed theft trial last year.
A “digital access hub” will offer veterans without reliable internet a secure, private space for online appointments, Schoharie County officials announced.
Durham School Services plans to close locations in Colonie and Rochester, potentially costing 258 people their jobs this summer.
The controversial Crescent Road QuickChek, which the Town of Clifton Park’s Zoning Board approved with an area variance in March, is facing a legal challenge.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
