Good morning, it’s Wednesday.

One of my guilty pleasures in the summer is ice cream for dinner. Not dessert BEFORE dinner, mind you, followed by a sensible consumption of protein, carbs, and healthy fats, but ice cream as the main event.

Ice cream is really a seasonable thing for me. Though I did somehow become an iced-coffee-whatever-the-weather person in the last year or so, ice cream doesn’t really appeal to me unless it’s blistering hot outside and all other food – except maybe watermelon, because leafy green salads and produce has been ruined for the moment – fails to tickle the fancy of my taste buds.

As an aside, here’s a depressing tidbit I just learned: Most of the ice cream you purchase is NOT in fact ice cream, but rather a “frozen dairy dessert” because it doesn’t actually meet the FDA and USDA requirements to call itself ice cream, which is to have at least 10 percent milk fat content and no more than 100 percent of whipped in air compared to the volume and base of the mix.

Yes, it’s true, “ice cream” is a legally protected designation.

And also, you did read that right, manufacturers are allowed to basically double the volume of their ice cream by pumping it full of air. There’s a formal term for how much air is incorporated into ice cream while it’s still in liquid form: “Overrun.” There’s an overrun grading system that impacts the texture and taste of the finished product. It is as follows:

  • Low (20%–30% air): This is reserved for rich, dense treats like gelato or super-premium brands.
  • Medium (50%–60% air): Most commercial hard-packed and soft-serve ice cream falls into this category, with a balance between lightness and creaminess.
  • High (80%–100%+ air): More air = the fluffier and lighter texture found in budget or mass-market commercial ice creams.

On quality, ice cream is graded into four different tiers:

  • Super-Premium: 14-16% butterfat with an overrun of 25% or less.
  • Premium: 11-12% butterfat with an overrun of about 50%, striking a balance between creaminess and value.
  • Regular/Standard: 10% butterfat, which is the the legal minimum, with a higher overrun of up to 90% – this is where most ice cream brands land.
  • Economy: Just barely meets the minimum legal standard for ingredients and weight and the highest percentage of air allowed. (This is what you’re getting if you bought a big tub of ice cream at the lowest price point).

As I was researching this piece, I started wondering: Why is is ice cream and not ICED cream? Waaaaaay back in the day – we’re talking in the 1600s or so – people apparently did call it “iced” cream but this was later shortened (similar to how we no longer use the term “skimmed” milk).

Ice cream’s origin story is murky, but it seems like ancient leaders including (in no particular order) King Solomon, Alexander the Great and Nero Claudius Caesar all enjoyed snow flavored with honey, nectar, fruits, or fruit juices. Marco Polo brought something akin to sherbet home from his travels in the Far East, where mixtures of milk and rice were frozen using naturally occurring ice collected from local lakes.

All of these treats seemed to evolve independently of one another, which is kind of amazing when you think of it and underscores both human ingenuity and our endless desire for sweets.

The global ice cream market is big business – in the multiple billions – with China leading the pack on overall sales, though per person sales are highest (about $14 per capita) here in the U.S. The American ice cream market alone is valued at about $20 to $22 billion a year, with the average person eating about 5 gallons annually. (Chocolate is by far our favorite flavor).

We are smack in the middle of National Ice Cream Month, and I will continue to do my part in celebrating, though sadly, the weather hasn’t really be cooperating of late.

More rain is in the forecast, with showers and thunderstorms possible throughout the day, though more likely in the morning. Up to an inch of rain could fall and localized flooding is a threat. Be on the alert. It will be unseasonably cool, with highs struggling to hit the mid-70s.

In the headlines…

President Trump, in a memorial service at the National Cathedral yesterday, eulogized Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator and longtime force on Capitol Hill who died this month at 71, as “one of the great figures in Senate history.”

“He died doing the work he was born to do,” Trump said before mourners who included several members of the Cabinet, foreign dignitaries and conservative luminaries, as well as a bipartisan group of lawmakers from Congress. “He was truly a great politician.”

The Trump administration has begun arresting foreign citizens with expired U.S. visas as they travel through airports, including spouses of Americans – a tactic that opens up a vast new pool of people for deportation.

Trump kept two Tuesday audiences — one with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and the other with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine — out of the public eye and let them sum up the meetings.

The Iranian authorities publicly hanged two participants in the country’s widespread January protests, human rights groups said, the latest executions in what activists describe as a rapid increase in the government’s use of the death penalty this year.

Trump overruled his own agencies when he denied disaster aid for four Democratic-led states this month.

A library astride the U.S.-Canada border has seen a surge in interest from curious visitors after Trump’s administration ended a 122-year-old tradition and began requiring Canadian visitors to use the back door.

Trump and the DOJ separately asked the Supreme Court to overturn a civil court verdict that ordered him to pay the writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her while denying her claim that he sexually assaulted her in a New York department store.

As federal health officials insist the U.S. food health supply is “safe” amid the ongoing cyclospora outbreak, concerns continue to sway American lawmakers and consumers alike.

“The U.S. food supply is safe,” Donald Prater, the acting deputy commissioner for food at the FDA, told attendees Monday at the annual meeting of the International Association for Food Protection. “However, there’s a couple of challenges.”

New York Times opinion journalist Ross Douthat is reportedly set to join CBS News and “60 Minutes” as a correspondent.

Social media companies will be prohibited from delivering content to children and teenagers in New York that’s curated using an algorithm fed with data about their online behaviors starting early next year under new rules announced this week.

Federal investigators said high-ranking administrators at the New York State Museum in Albany directed a subordinate to falsify time sheets, allowing the state to improperly draw down $597,624 in federal grants from 2020 to 2022.

The findings were published in a summary of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General, after reporting by The New York Times about the fraud allegations.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced detailed regulations the state plans to implement under a law enacted in 2024 to protect children from social media addiction.

Hochul leads Bruce Blakeman by just 4 percentage points, according to a pro-Blakeman super PAC poll. Just 47% of those surveyed said they’d back the governor, compared to 43% who supported the Nassau County executive, with 10% undecided.

Hochul announced a statewide public awareness and enforcement campaign to reduce bridge strikes, highlighting a safety issue that has received increased attention in Central New York because of repeated crashes involving overwheight trucks.

Hochul is calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to bring down the temperature following heated controversies over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the city’s new pied-à-terre tax.

An immigrant-led business group is gearing up to sue New York City over Mamdani’s controversial plan to open five taxpayer-funded supermarkets — claiming the $70 million project will create unfair competition for nearby stores.

City Hall announced that all city agencies are being directed to find an additional 2.5% savings in fiscal years 2027 and 2028.

A cabinet secretary, President Trump’s niece and an Oscar-nominated director have emerged as potential targets of Mamdani’s new tax on luxury second homes.

Some homeowners erupted after the administration published its roster of potentially eligible pied-a-terre tax properties, accusing the Mamdani administration of performing zero due diligence before putting them on the list.

Mamdani appointed 13 people to the city’s school board Tuesday, cementing his control over the panel that votes on major policy changes, contracts, and decisions to merge or close schools.

Reihan Salam, the head of the conservative Manhattan Institute, has a lot in common with Mamdani, but has emerged as the leader of a conservative intellectual engine of opposition to the mayor.

The mayor is still in early into his first term, but how he navigates the differences between Candidate Mamdani and Mayor Mamdani will likely determine the strength of support from his most loyal allies, and the ammunition rivals have going into the 2029 election.

Bari Weiss’ CBS News New York quietly edited a key claim in its coverage of a petition regarding Mamdani and 9/11 families asking that he stay away from the 25th anniversary memorial, after a journalist called the network’s reporting into question. 

Long Island Rail Road ridership soared to pre-pandemic levels for the first time in June, thanks in part to the Knicks NBA Finals victory and the US Open golf tournament.

The NYPD detective killed in last year’s Midtown mass shooting was remembered Tuesday as a man who picked up extra shifts on his days off, raised thousands of dollars for his cousin’s mosque in Parkchester and took his brother-in-law to get his learner’s permit.

Major airlines are letting customers change — and even cancel — flights traveling to or from the New York metropolitan area as the city prepares for severe storms this week.

After nearly three years of work, the MTA’s overhaul of the Park Avenue Viaduct — which stretches from E. 103rd St. to E. 132nd, carrying Metro-North trains north from Grand Central Terminal — is complete.

The former director of a Queens public defender organization was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy for looting the nonprofit for personal gain.

The Department of Transportation today is putting up for auction the first of the “Champions Way” street signs that were hung along the Knicks ticker tape parade route last month to commemorate their first N.B.A. championship win in decades.

The iconic red-bag-shaped Macy’s billboard on the corner of 34th Street and Broadway came down over the weekend, exposing the old “holdout” building beneath. It’ll soon be replaced with two new LED signs, according to the Department of Buildings.

Orthodox Jewish leaders have lobbied against the Sunshine Protection Act since it was passed by the House of Representatives in July, joining an unlikely coalition of opponents.

Republican congressional candidate Anthony Constantino is defending his company’s decision to keep selling products for notorious influencer Andrew Tate even after his recent arrest on new charges of rape and sex trafficking.

The founder of Alltek Energy Systems of Waterford is suing the company, alleging he is still owed millions of dollars from the 2020 sale of the firm to its employees.

Calling housing activists “intellectually dishonest and arrogant,” a Saratoga Springs City Court judge rejected defense attorneys’ argument that the city’s camping ban is unconstitutional.

The Capital Region’s first year-round Shake Shack is almost ready to open in part of the former TGI Friday’s location at Stuyvesant Plaza.

A long-awaited link in Schenectady’s bike trail system is now open, creating a new connection between city parks and downtown.

Photo credit: George Fazio.