Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
When I was seven, my family decamped to Tokyo for a year to accompany my father on a professorial fullbright – a program launched by then-President Truman in 1946 to (as the website puts it) “increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”
The experience, as far as I remember it, was equal parts amazing and unsettling. I was very young, didn’t speak the language, and spending 12 months away from everything and everyone I knew upended my life in a very significant way. Even though I attended an international school, where many embassy kids were sent and English was the primary language spoken, I was still very much a fish out of water with my peers.
This was made clear on the very first day of school, when it was time for lunch and I whipped out a brown bag that contained a sandwich (probably peanut butter and jelly) and a piece of fruit – a standard American midday meal for a school-wage child – while everyone else had intricately laid out Bento boxes containing all manner of Japanese delicacies.
I had a hard time making friends in Japan. It probably didn’t help that I threw up in the classroom on that first day – nerves, probably, or maybe a stomach bug I contracted due to being in a new country and exposed to all manner of unfamiliar germs and viruses. Overall, there were a lot of cultural differences, but I can’t help but wonder if things might have been easier if I had shown up with a Bento box lunch like everyone else.
This experience scarred me, to be sure, but it wasn’t strong enough to out me off sandwiches, which remain one of my favorite foods. I often prefer a deconstructed open-face version, but rare is the week that goes by without me eating some sort of sandwich for at least one meal a day, if not two.
August is National Sandwich Month, which makes sense to me. For those of us in the Northeast, where summer is all-too fleeting, we’re spending these final weeks of the season packing in all the outdoor time we can get, which means lots of picnics; barbecues; hikes; lake, pool, and beach days; porch time etc. Easy, uncomplicated meats are where it’s at.
Also, there is nothing in the world like a well-made BLT with in-season tomatoes. (Wash them well; ditto the lettuce, and unless you’re growing them in your own backyard, buy local if you can – it’s safer AND you support small farms).
You’ve probably heard the origin story about the Early of Sandwich who popularized the concept of putting meat between two slices of bread so he could have sustenance at the gaming table while keeping one hand free to keep betting. The truth is that while this 18th century nobleman did probably play some kind of role in the meal that now bears his name, humans had been eating sandwich-like concoctions for centuries – just consider the Hillel “sandwich” that plays a significant role at the Seder table.
Here in the U.S. the sandwich caught on as Depression-era food, because they were relatively cheap and filling. This was the time when low-budget combinations such as peanut butter and mayo, butter, or pickles, and fried bologna started catching on.
These days, sandwiches range from the simple to the sublime and, if you eat them out, can set you back well into the double digits, if you’re dining somewhere fancy.
If you’re out of practice and have kids, now would be a good time to up your sandwich-making game, though data shows that only 42 percent of school-age children are brown bagging it these days – a significant drop from years past. In this day and age, it’s the adults who are more often bringing food from home to the office. (Meal-prepping is where it’s at).
We’ll see partly cloudy skies today with highs in the mid-80s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.
The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible.
It also directs the nation’s health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States.
The president of the American Medical Association on Monday said President Trump’s new recommendations on childhood immunizations put “children’s health at risk,” joining the chorus of medical experts criticizing the executive order.
Dr. Anthony Fauci privately raised concerns that the COVID-19 vaccine could “theoretically” be linked to miscarriages in expectant mothers, despite having publicly insisted there were “no red flags” for pregnant women.
Top administration officials engaged in an elaborate deception to spirit Trump out of Turkey during the NATO summit there last month, transporting him in a catering container to a military jet because of a threat against him and Air Force One from Iran.
An Iranian assassination threat against the president prompted an extraordinary operation last month in which he flew secretly from Turkey on an alternate military aircraft while the White House said he was aboard Air Force One.
A powerful earthquake rocked western Colombia on Monday morning, rattling much of the country and setting off a desperate search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings in several major cities.
At least 111 people were killed and 87 others were injured, according to Colombia’s president, Abelardo De La Espriella, who said at least 1,575 homes, 18 health centers and 52 schools had been damaged. The death toll was likely to rise as rescue efforts continue.
July’s sweltering heat officially torched the record books, earning the rank as the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous US, according to forecasters.
After Gov. Kathy Hochul weakened the nation’s strongest climate law, environmental advocates in New York are split over what to do next: keep fighting over her energy agenda, or work with her and try to shape what she’s still willing to do to slow climate change.
The chair of the state Democratic committee, Jay Jacobs, filed a complaint with the state Board of Elections on Monday over Republican Bruce Blakeman’s use of artificial intelligence in campaign ads.
Blakeman accused Hochul of refusing to debate him in the New York gubernatorial race, saying said he has been invited to debate by PIX11 and CBS, but she has repeatedly declined to participate so far.
Hochul pushed back on suggestions that state-approval of the pied-à-terre tax represents a concession to progressive Democrats in New York City, saying the measure was designed to ensure wealthy property owners contribute to city services.
Over one million New York seniors are at risk of paying higher prescription drug prices come January 1, 2027, when the “Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Program” ends.
Hochul pushed back on suggestions that state-approval of the pied-à-terre tax represents a concession to progressive Democrats in New York City, saying the measure was designed to ensure wealthy property owners contribute to city services.
Hochul announced that $20 million is now available through the second round of the Community Reforestation (CoRe) Grant Program.
The state allocated $9.75 million to Lincoln Hospital to complete a cardiac catheterization lab, Hochul said. The move aims to end a longstanding gap in advanced heart care in the South Bronx.
An audit released by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office found that the state Department of Environmental Conservation had reported inaccurate statewide recycling data from January 2021 to December 2023 due to missing reports and spotty oversight.
After a massive $2.2 billion price tag — $850 million of which was taxpayer money — on the Bills’ new stadium, fans are giving terrible reviews while season-ticket holders entered for the first Blue & Red practice, which set an attendance record of 51,807.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration was dealt a setback on Monday when a judge paused the rollout of a contentious tax on the second homes of wealthy New Yorkers, forcing city officials to race to file a hasty appeal.
The judge, Wayne M. Ozzi of State Supreme Court on Staten Island, granted a temporary restraining order requested by a group of homeowners who sued the city last week, arguing that the rollout was being mishandled.
In the heart of Manhattan, at the corner of Broadway and West 43rd Street, a massive new billboard paid for by the Florida Chamber of Commerce is sending a provocative message to New York leadership: “Thanks for the jobs!”
Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji is heading to Syria and Lebanon, which are on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list for Americans, next month – and she’s bringing along cops assigned to the First Couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD detail.
Mamdani said Monday he has asked President Trump to restore protected status to Haitians after City Hall was forced to dismiss city employees living in the country under now-terminated federal Temporary Protected Status.
A group of rabbis beseeched Mamdani on Monday to pay greater attention to the effect of his rhetoric about Israel on the safety of New York City Jews during a private meeting at City Hall.
Attorney Carrie Goldberg said she wants to grill Mamdani’s First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan related to her claims by her client Elizabeth Crothers that she was sexually assaulted by then-state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s chief legal counsel in 2001.
Mamdani appointed an ex- judge, Milton Tingling, to his Advisory Committee on the Judiciary who is accused of allowing racism and antisemitism to fester at a non-profit, court papers reveal.
The mayor said that he personally appealed to President Trump to restore protections for Haitian immigrants, as his administration moved to dismiss city workers who lost their legal authorization to work following the end of Temporary Protected Status.
Mamdani campaigned on a vow to “fight each and every day” to protect immigrants in the city. But that promise has him running into the limits of his power.
New York’s elections watchdog declined to seek sanctions against the Bronx Democratic Party after New York Focus reported it failed to file a spate of campaign disclosure reports and hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions and spending.
With platform temperatures reaching 96 degrees, one of the hottest subway stations in New York City could soon become the testing ground for a first-of-its-kind effort to cool riders underground while recycling heat above ground.
Grand Central Terminal is transforming every available nook and cranny into bars and restaurants as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority spearheads the largest expansion of hospitality businesses at the railroad hub in decades.
The boat that capsized near Liberty Island on Saturday, killing a woman and her 5-month-old daughter, was not authorized under federal regulations to provide tours to paying customers in New York Harbor, a criminal complaint filed in federal court shows.
Federal prosecutors charged the captain in a boat accident that killed a mother and daughter near Liberty Island over the weekend, as questions have emerged about the tour company’s safety history.
The captain of a motorboat that capsized in New York Harbor and killed a mom and her baby was not licensed to operate the vessel – and was actually hired as a limo driver, new court documents reveal.
A jury in Essex County found Luciano Frattolin guilty of murdering his 9-year-old daughter a year ago — a crime he initially tried to cover up by reporting that she had been kidnapped from an Adirondack rest area.
An audit of Albany County workers found over $1.2 million in “unidentified payments” were distributed to hundreds of employees over the last three years and at least one falsified their county time records while doing outside work for a different employer.
A 50-unit apartment building on Livingston Avenue for older, disabled or military veteran residents is overrun with rodents, used needles, garbage, insects and mold, resulting in conditions that Albany code enforcement officials said are unsafe and unfit for living.
City police have identified the 66-year-old woman killed after she was struck by a Capital District Transportation Authority bus Friday afternoon on New Scotland Avenue.
Among various requests included in a new notice of petition filed in state Supreme Court, the county wants more than $7,000 in open citations issued by the city of Albany annulled, claiming that the process for issuing the tickets was unfair and inconsistent.
The Albany man accused of trying to drown his sister at the Corning Preserve boat launch pleaded not guilty to attempted murder Monday during a brief appearance in City Court.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
