We have finally reached Friday after what seemed like a never-ending week (to me, anyway). Everyone collectively exhale.
I live on a dead end road that is not frequented by the ice cream truck, even though we have several elementary school-age kids in the neighborhood. I often hear the truck’s incessant jingle dimly repeating somewhere in the not-too-distant vicinity, but never actually lay eyes on it.
This is kind of disappointing, because every once in a while when it’s really hot and nothing else in the fridge appeals, I wouldn’t mind a sweet treat available just a few yards from my doorstep.
That said, I fear that I’m not even remotely familiar with what the ice cream truck is offering these days. The basics of my childhood – bomb pops, ice cream sandwiches, Chief Crunchies (AKA Scooter Crunch bars), Fudgesicles, etc. – seem to have been replaced by a whole fleet of fancy, often character-based treats that I don’t recognize.
My default choice, though, would be anything that includes chocolate, though I would make an exception for a strawberry Chief Crunchie. One thing I definitely would not opt for: A Creamsicle. The vanilla/orange combo has never done it for me, though I know it has its cult following. It’s too reminiscent of baby aspirin for me.
I appear to be in the minority on this one, as creamsicle – the flavor profile, not the bar itself, which we’ll get to in a moment – is experiencing something of a resurgence that started last summer and is still going strong, even expanding into skincare. (Sorry, as an aside, yuck – who wants to smell like that?) There are also riffs on the traditional orange/vanilla combo, with raspberry, lime, and even blueberry versions.
To tell the story of how the Creamsicle came to be, we have to start with with an 11-year-old kid named Frank Epperson, who is credited with accidentally inventing the popsicle in 1905 by leaving a cup of soda with a wooden stick in it outside on an exceptionally cold day.
The vanilla-orange flavor profile has been around for some time. It is, for example, the foundation of the popular Orange Julius drink, which is a blend of orange juice, milk, sweetener, vanilla extract, powdered egg whites, and ice, conceptualized by a guy named Bill Hamlin, who was the real estate agent of LA orange juice salesman Julius Freed (or maybe Fried?) in 1926.
It wasn’t until several years later – 1937 – that the Popsicle brand introduced the Creamsicle to the American public.
Interestingly, today is National Creamsicle Day for no apparent reason that I can discern. One could argue that it SHOULD have been yesterday, Aug. 13, which was the birthday of Julius Freed/Fried, who was born in Montana in 1887.
You cannot, it turns out, use the terms “Creamsicle” and “Dreamsicle” interchangeably. The first – a registered trademark under the Unilever group – features a vanilla ice cream core surrounded by orange sherbet, while the second is a slightly less indulgent interpretation, with ice milk (less fat) in the center instead of ice cream, which gives is a different texture and taste.
I was today years old when I learned that the term “creamsicle” is slang for someone or something unusually smooth and appealing.
We’ve got a mixed bag of weather this weekend, starting off with a generally sunny day today with high temperatures in the low 80s. Tomorrow with bring ever so slightly cooler temperatures, with highs in the high 70s, and partly cloudy skies. Sunday is the worst of the lot, when it comes to outdoor activities, with showers in the morning that develop into a steady rain by afternoon. Highs will peak in the mid-to-high 70s.
In the headlines…
The White House accused China of routing billions of dollars of goods through other countries to avoid President Trump’s 2018 tariffs, costing the U.S. billions of dollars in lost revenue, according to a new report released Thursday.
The report, titled “The Great Transshipment Scam,” found more than 40 countries, ranging from Mexico to Israel, involved with what the report described as a “global Shadow Transshipment Network through which China’s tariff evasion now moves.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pressing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on whether the administration’s response to the cyclosporiasis outbreak was influenced by the donations of a major produce supplier to groups linked to Trump.
A group of Senate Democrats called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an audit into the White House ballroom project following new reporting on the Trump administration’s multi-million-dollar construction projects.
The Washington Post reported this week on confidential contracts that showed the administration is expected to spend at least $900 million on White House construction projects, including the massive ballroom.
A federal judge in Boston on Thursday dismissed the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University, dealing a blow to the government’s efforts to force the school to make a deal.
The Trump administration is encouraging American companies to conduct their own cyberattacks against criminal hackers, which White House officials say will help address digital scourges like ransomware but that some warn could lead to chaos.
Under a national security memorandum that President Trump signed late Wednesday, select companies would work with the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to strike foreign cybercriminal groups with hacks under certain conditions.
A debate over a new tax credit has turned into a discussion about private schools in New York. Are they bad for democracy, hurting students educationally, or providing an escape from a troubled public school system?
New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson was forced to admit he shouldn’t have called on voters to oust jurists who believe in “stupid” long sentences.
The state Department of Financial Services is moving forward with an overhaul of New York’s health care provider payment dispute resolution process, a proposal that fueled a contentious fight between insurers and providers during this year’s legislative session.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed openness to campaigning with Gov. Kathy Hochul as she prepares to face Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman, signaling a warming relationship between the two Democrats who represent different factions of the party.
Blakeman disputed a Siena College poll released Wednesday showing Hochul with a 49 percent-39 percent lead over him, calling the race “neck and neck.”
Blakeman vowed to repeal New York State’s BitLicense regulatory framework if elected to the top job, saying the Empire State “should be the financial capital of the world.”
Trump is hitting Long Island today to unveil a new FBI crime report showing the largest year-to-year decrease in violent crime ever recorded, the White House announced. He’ll be joined by Blakeman for a tour of Nassau County’s “state of the art” police facility.
New York plans to fund legal services for about 1,400 children with pending immigration cases who could lose their representation in court if the Trump administration stops paying for those services.
Qualified New Yorkers can expect to receive a utility rebate check for up to $200 in the mail starting in September ahead of the November elections.
Hochul has made it clear that she will not visit Niagara County, despite requests from residents affected by the ongoing investigation of elevated radiation readings on their property.
The governor joined local leaders and Kaleida Health for a beam signing event at the future site of the Northern Chautauqua Hospital. Funded in part with $124 million from New York state, Hochul says the hospital is expected to open in Fredonia in 2029.
New York and 20 other states are suing the DOT and DHS to block them from accessing the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of commercial drivers as part of an effort to identify fraud in the issuance of the licenses.
New York City’s pied-à-terre tax can continue its planned rollout while it faces a legal challenge, an appellate judge ruled yesterday.
Thousands of Long Island taxpayers are connected to some of New York City’s priciest homes subject to a new annual tax, under Mamdani, aimed at any city home that is a non-primary residence known as a pied-à-terre, a Newsday analysis has found.
Mamdani weighed in on the “Woke 1 was crazy” remark said by New York City council member Chi Ossé and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, echoing that “sometimes, what you believe can change.”
As much as Mamdani’s team runs on leftist idealism and social media bravado, it is also imbued with sports fanaticism, nonstop razzing, practical jokes and various forms of nicotine (especially Zyn). It runs on people committing to the bit.
Community activists are calling on Mamdani to push the NYPD to scale back on arrests for so-called “quality of life crimes.”
Elected officials and police reform advocates called on Mamdani to rein in what they call a continuation of broken windows policing under his administration, after they watched criminal court arraignments across the city over several days this week.
Transportation Alternatives wants Mamdani to cap the e-bike fee for members at $3. Citi Bike members currently pay $12.15 for a 45-minute e-bike ride, on top of a $239 annual membership fee that also gives them free rides on analog, non-electric bikes.
A coalition of prominent tenant advocacy groups is defending New York City’s rent freeze by stepping into the high-profile legal fight launched by landlords attempting to topple one of Mamdani’s key campaign pledges.
Two nonprofits, Tenants and Neighbors and the Met Council on Housing, filed a joint motion Thursday to intervene after a group of landlords sued the Rent Guidelines Board last month.
The median Manhattan rental price for a market-rate apartment soared to $5,000 in July — up 3% from June and 6% from July 2025. The record-high rent comes alongside a staggering drop in public market listings.
The Sunnyside Yard project, which Mamdani and Trump seemed to agree on in February, has gone dark, and Councilmember Julie Won, who represents the area, says she’s no longer taking the matter seriously, having heard nothing from City Hall.
The City Council on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to revive year-round outdoor dining in the five boroughs, reversing a three-year-old move to make the perk seasonal.
The City Council is waging a war against dog poop – passing four laws aimed at cleaning up the city’s rampant pet feces problem.
The package of four bills, known as the Safe and Clean Outdoor Ownership Practices, or SCOOP, Act came in response to rising complaints about dog droppings around the city.
A coalition is backing new City Council legislation that would shift regulation of the pedicab industry to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, and require every pedicab to carry a city-approved meter, city-issued identification and a scannable registration code.
New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels vowed to double down on the city’s reading curriculum amid a decline in performance on the state’s English exams — and threats from the teachers union to pull support for the initiative.
“We do need to focus,” Samuels said during the keynote address at City & State’s Education in New York Summit Thursday morning. “We continue to have a lot of work to do to make sure that our kids are literate.”
The boss of the influential teachers union called out the Mamdani administration’s literacy initiative after more than half of city’s public school kids failed their reading proficiency exams.
After the precipitous plunge in reading scores, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew is threatening to drop the union’s support of the curriculum overhaul.
The Elizabeth Street Garden is no longer a battlefield. Developers picked to build low-income senior housing atop the green, statue-strewn lot in Lower Manhattan has officially dropped a lawsuit it filed against the city for abruptly canceling the decade-old plan.
Luigi Mangione is set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom today in his federal case for an eleventh-hour hearing that has fueled speculation he’s planning to plead out in relation to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A guilty plea in the federal case would likely upend Mangione’s chances of going to trial in state court next month, several legal experts said.
Mangione faces federal charges of stalking that resulted in the death of a health insurance executive. A guilty plea could close the federal case — and complicate a separate state murder trial.
The Albany Industrial Development Agency is considering taking legal action against the developers of an unfinished apartment complex at 1211 Western Ave. — a building that has been the subject of years of local controversy.
A 34-year-old autistic man in Glens Falls has been accused by fellow community members of harassing children. He’s been mocked online, ridiculed in public and physically assaulted multiple times.
Fran Weinstein grew up as a working-class kid raised by Polish immigrant parents who had fled Nazi Germany. She became a well-respected television entertainment reporter, producer and director. The part-time Washington County resident has released a book.
Concerned Gloversville residents have blamed many causes for a recent spike in youth crime, which has become a hot topic in the Adirondack foothills community of nearly 15,000 people.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
