Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
I don’t know about you, but chocolate figures heavily in my nostalgic mental summer memory book.
From chasing down the ice cream truck to buy Fudgsicles and Nutty Buddies, to enjoying Carvel Flying Saucers (celebrating a 75th anniversary this year!) at the Moriello Pool, to toasting marshmallows for S’mores at sleep-away camp, to celebrating my birthday (July 25, I’m a quintessential Leo) with a homemade cake, summer would have been a lot less sweet had chocolate not figured prominently in the equation.
Today is World Chocolate Day, which some believe is the anniversary of the introduction of chocolate to Europe in 1550. A cursory effort to track down the veracity of this claim was unsuccessful (admittedly, I didn’t try terribly hard). I was able to determine that chocolate was “discovered” thousands of years ago by ancient Mesoamerican people.
Traces of theobromine – a naturally bitter and naturally occurring stimulant alkaloid that is present in some teas, kola nuts, and cacao – have been found by archeologists in pottery that date back to the Mayo-Chinchipe civilization (sometime around 3300 BCE) in what is now Ecuador.
Eventually, the Mayans and then the Aztecs elevated cacao to a sacred status, making it into a frothy drink known as xocolatl (“dirty and/or bitter water”) that was mixed with chili peppers and sometimes sweetened with honey, which was consumed during royal and/or religious rituals.
The Aztecs elevated chocolate appreciation to a whole new level, believing (and who could blame them?) that cacao was a gift from the gods and prizing it as even more valuable than gold. Unlike the Mayans, who thought cacao should be enjoyed by everyone, the Aztecs reserved it solely for special occasions, though the upper classes got to enjoy it more frequently.
It’s not entirely clear which Spanish explorer brought cacao beans back with them to Europe – maybe it was Christopher Columbus , but, then again, it could have been Cortes. Either way, we know that Europeans quickly became big cacao fans, enjoying it as a beverage hot that was made more palatable with the addition of sugar, vanilla, and milk.
Chocolate steadily gained in popularity, migrating over to the American colonies via Florida. The first chocolate “houses”, which specialized providing patrons with the hot beverage alongside coffee and tea, opened in Boston in the late 1600s. The downside in all this chocolate consumption is that it drove up demand for cacao pods, which were grown on massive plantations that were often staffed by enslaved people.
World Chocolate Day should not be confused with International Chocolate Day, which is observed on Sept. 13. That is the birthday of Milton S. Hershey, born in 1857 and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, which to this day is more or less synonymous with all things chocolate in the U.S.
Sept. 13, 1916 also happened to be the birthday of the writer Roald Dahl, who penned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, published in 1964.
Another unseasonably cool and wet day is on tap, with lows in the 50s (!) and highs struggling to make it into the mid-70s. Skies will be cloudy and rain showers will occur throughout the day.
In the headlines…
Maine U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner said yesterday that he is “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward” for his candidacy minutes after POLITICO reported that a woman who dated him said he forced her to have sex with him.
Platner denied the allegation, but said in a roughly two-minute video posted to social media that he is “mindful of the political reality” the reporting “will inflict.”
Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Ruben Gallego rescinded their support of Platner, with Khanna additionally calling for the Democratic nominee to drop out of the Maine Senate race.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand called on Platner to “immediately withdraw” from the Maine Senate race.
Platner has until July 13 to withdraw from the race, and if he does the state Democratic Party has until July 27 to replace him on the ticket, according to Maine state law. The leadership of the state party urged him to withdraw.
Jenny Racicot, who accused Platner of sexual assault, detailed her recollection of the alleged attack in an extended interview with the CNN host Jake Tapper, saying it was something she “tried for many years to forget.”
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the former majority leader, was hospitalized on June 14. Since then, his office has provided few updates about his condition.
Planned Parenthood has regained access to hundreds of millions in federal Medicaid funding as a Republican congressional ban expired after a year.
The organization still cannot receive funds for abortions but can resume billing the feds for up to $800 million a year for other health services like birth control and screening for sexually transmitted diseases that it provides to poor and disabled patients.
The U.S. men’s national team came into Monday night’s round-of-16 matchup against Belgium with the chance to further galvanize a nation around their World Cup run and to get to a World Cup quarterfinal for the first time since 2002. Instead their bid is over.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee, the body that lifted American striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension ahead of Monday’s U.S.-Belgium game, defended its decision in a statement released hours before kickoff in Seattle — but didn’t explain its rationale.
“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee (as any other FIFA judicial body) is independent as provided by the FIFA Statutes and the FIFA Disciplinary Code,” the statement read in part.
The way FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, tells it, there was nothing out of the ordinary when he received a call from President Trump after the United States’ victory over Bosnia secured the team’s path to the round of 16.
Graphic videos, detailed police accounts and high-profile conservative figures defined the first day of a hearing to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to take a 23-year-old man to trial for the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
A former campus police officer testified Monday that he found an apparent “sniper pad” on a rooftop near where Kirk was assassinated, as prosecutors sought to convince a state judge they have enough evidence to put a Utah man on trial for murder.
President Trump’s image on a limited-edition U.S. passport is drawing long lines from supporters — and sharp criticism from detractors.
About 40,000 of the documents, which the White House has called “patriot passports,” will be issued at no extra cost while supplies last, according to the State Department.
Gov. Kathy Hochul made a three-stop tour of Long Island yesterday, weeks after a poll showed she is trailing ever so slightly behind her gubernatorial Republican rival, Bruce Blakeman, in his home turf of Nassau County.
Hochul celebrated a $100 million grant program for local cops in Freeport and signed a law that would preserve open space in Smithtown.
During back-to-back appearances in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Hochul cast a Blakeman campaign mailer that blamed her and socialist New York City Mayor Mamdani for “sky high taxes, rising utility bills and out of control crime” as pure fantasy.
A law firm’s review of the use of force inside the central New York prisons where two inmates were beaten to death by correction officers confirmed that a staffing crisis is fueling a lack of programming and leading to more misbehavior and unsafe conditions.
The long-awaited 277-page outside review of New York’s prison system was ordered by Hochul after Brooks and another prisoner, Messiah Nantwi, were killed by guards at the Marcy and Midstate correctional facilities.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink expressed concern about the future of New York City under Mamdani, suggesting he’d do business elsewhere under “weaker” conditions.
Interviews with D.S.A. members and organizers in New York City suggest that frustration with the economy has been the most important factor in the group’s growth.
Mamdani is playing coy about the red card revocation of USMNT striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension, posting a clip on X featuring a quote from José Mourinho, the legendary Portuguese soccer manager after preferring not to speak to avoid trouble.
Hours after Mamdani vowed to release New York City documents about the toxins swirling above Ground Zero in the days after 9/11 in time for the 25th anniversary of the attacks, city lawyers asked a judge to quash a lawsuit requesting the same papers.
Spencer Pratt sparked widespread online reaction over Independence Day weekend after posting a sharp rebuke of Mamdani for using the July 4 holiday to criticize America’s history.
The Big Apple’s beleaguered Department of Education quietly got even more money in this year’s massive $126 billion budget — pushing public school funding to nearly a third of all planned city spending.
New York City’s first-ever pied-à-terre tax — an annual surcharge on non-primary residences valued at $5 million or more — took effect July 1, after months of warnings that wealthy buyers would flee the market. They didn’t.
ABC’s “The View” declined a request from Mamdani to bring two democratic socialist congressional candidates onto the daytime talk show as the Disney-owned network grows increasingly wary of a high-stakes FCC investigation into its political guest bookings.
It didn’t get any easier or harder to find parking after New York implemented congestion pricing tolls on trips into Manhattan below 60th Street, according to a new study.
Gotham FC, the defending champion of the National Women’s Soccer League, is set to announce that it is abandoning its current home in Harrison, N.J., and will play its home games at Etihad Park, the future home of New York City F.C. in Flushing, Queens.
As of yesterday, 18 cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been confirmed in two of Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhoods, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Tenants’ rights groups see a clearer path to pass key pieces of their agenda, like statewide rent control, next year after progressive candidates they backed won recent primary races outside New York City and housing affordability stays top-of-mind for voters.
Congestion pricing has not only reduced gridlock in Manhattan — new research shows it could also be saving lives.
A new paper published by six academics for the National Bureau of Economic Research found tolls have significantly sped up ambulance response times below 60th Street since January 2025, when the MTA started charging drivers a fee to enter the area.
The NYPD officer who was shot in the back on a Brooklyn street early Sunday morning may have been hit by friendly fire, an NYPD spokesperson said.
Hunters can’t keep up with New York’s booming deer population. So the state is making it easier to hunt more of them.
An upstate New York resident sued ICE for sending federal officers to his house with a warning over an email he sent to the agency’s one-time head.
State Assemblyman Robert Smullen’s campaign announced that after meeting with Trump in the Oval Office last week, he decided not to appear on the Conservative Party ballot line this November.
A week after Bard College President Leon Botstein served his last day in the role, college officials won’t say if he has received a new contract to remain employed by the institution, despite his announcement that he would continue in several prominent roles.
A former Columbia Memorial Health vice president questioned if the hospital would focus on the needs of residents as it expands its psychiatric unit and opens an outpatient surgery center while seeking to limit the number of hospital beds at its main campus.
The Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office is blaming a faulty air conditioning system for the death of a police dog during last week’s extreme heat, saying Monday that the system appeared to be working a short time before it failed.
At the start of the holiday weekend, a standout student athlete for Georgia’s Savannah State University was handcuffed and taken away by ICE agents in Clifton Park, according to friends who witnessed the encounter.
A former City of Albany fire lieutenant was sentenced last Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison for possessing and distributing images and videos of child sexual abuse, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
A Watertown man is offering a $1,000 reward in hopes of finding the suspect in an incident that left his teenage son injured.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
