Good morning, it’s Wednesday already.
We are rocketing toward fall. (Reminder: Autumnal Equinox is Sept. 22). This is as good a time as any for a program note: There will be no “Rise and Shine” Friday as we – along with everyone else – take a day of mourning for the unofficial end of summer (AKA Labor Day weekend).
I’ll be back bright and early on Monday so we can hit the reset button together and get ourselves mentally ready for the back-to-school, holiday season, end-of-year rush that looms ahead.
This weekend is going to be a last hurrah for summer flavors before we turn to apples and pumpkin spice everything. That means all things fruity and tropical, which could – if you’re so inclined – include a heavy dose of coconut, the smell of which, if you’re a person of a certain age, can transport you to being coated with suntan oil and lounging at the ocean/lake/poolside.
Coconut, I have to confess, is not high on my list of Top 10 flavors. (Too much Malibu Rum back in the day). On Halloween, for example, I wouldn’t necessarily trade away my mini Mounds or Almond Joy bars, but I wouldn’t go looking to trade FOR them, either, especially if anything peanut butter-based was on the table.
But I do like a good magic bar as much as the next person. Ditto for coconut cream pie and coconut sticky rice.
Coconut water I don’t love, though I do get that it has significant hydration properties, thanks to the presence of minerals like potassium, sodium, and magnesium. I also never got on board with the coconut oil craze (side note: it’s don’t believe everything you read on the internet; it is very high in saturated fat, despite the presence of Medium-Chain Triglycerides (MCTs)).
Though it’s not a major food group here in the U.S., coconut is a dietary staple or significant food source for approximately one-third of the people on the planet – especially in tropical/subtropical regions in South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and parts of Africa. India ranks the highest in total overall coconut consumption, while Micronesia consumes the most per person.
India is one of the world’s biggest coconut producers, growing more than 70 percent of what is consumed, along with Indonesia and the Philippines,
The coconut is a pretty amazing and multi-purpose fruit (yes, despite its name it is classified as a fruit, akin to a peach or a plum, and not an actual nut).
It provides both sustenance with it meat AND hydration with its water. Its fiber can be turned into rope, and its shell can be used as a scooping tool or burned for fuel. The leaves of the tree it grows on can be turned into shelter or burned to stay warm. Coconut oil can be used for high-heat cooking, as a homeopathic remedy, a moisturizer/makeup remover, a furniture polish, and even a fuel.
In a pinch, you can even use a coconut to stay afloat in the water.
Today is World Coconut Day, which was created in 2009 by the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community to raise awareness about the cultural, societal and socioeconomic importance of the coconut and coconut products. (APCC), an intergovernmental organization of coconut-producing countries in the in the Asia-Pacific region. This date was selected because it commemorates the day in 1969 when the APCC was founded.
A most definitely un-tropical day is on tap, weather wise, with cloudy skies and high temperatures in the low 70s (we’re dropping like a stone in the warmth department). A stray thunderstorm or shower is possible, do don’t forget that umbrella!
In the headlines…
Congress passed a bipartisan measure to fund federal agencies until mid-December on Tuesday, averting the threat of a government shutdown ahead of the November midterm elections.
The House voted 370-48 to extend current funding levels through Dec. 11. The Senate already approved the measure, which includes a provision demanded by Democrats to delay a Trump administration rule putting political appointees in charge of issuing grants.
President Trump said he is nominating Navy veteran Hung Cao to become the service’s top civilian leader, a job that has been vacant since spring when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed John Phelan out of the job.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or blocked the promotions of more than 80 generals and admirals, a purge that has hit about 10 percent of the military’s top officers and shows no signs of slowing.
An anonymous federal official warned in a disclosure to Congress that a rushed and insufficiently tested U.S. Postal Service system could prevent large numbers of Americans from receiving mail ballots this fall if courts approve Trump’s plans for the midterms.
An Ohio man pleaded guilty Tuesday to vandalizing Vice President JD Vance’s Cincinnati home earlier this year.
William D. DeFoor pleaded guilty in federal court to engaging in acts of physical violence against government officials or property and causing willful injury or depredation to property of the U.S., Justice Department (DOJ) officials said in a release.
The House voted to censure GOP North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards over allegations he sexually harassed two young female staffers and created a hostile work environment. The measure passed 413-2. Only Edwards and Rep. Ralph Norman voted no.
Octogenarian Sen. Ed Markey, 80, defeated 47-year-old Rep. Seth Moulton on Tuesday in a bruising Massachusetts Senate primary that put Democrats’ preference for like-minded ideology over generational change on full display, giving progressives another win.
Several Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted with Republicans to adopt a resolution that formally denounces socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi wrote in The Free Press: “(I)f Democrats are going to earn the confidence of these Americans this November and beyond, the answer will not be found in the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) platform.”
The man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk potentially faces the death penalty after a Utah judge ruled there was enough evidence to warrant a trial for aggravated murder.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Tuesday that immigration officials had arrested 2,197 people in New York State in about a monthlong operation, suggesting an uptick in arrests compared with recent months.
Republican Gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman is defending his use of artificial intelligence (AI) in his campaign advertisements against Governor Kathy Hochul, saying: “People find it humorous. They like satire.”
Muslim leaders in Nassau are criticizing Blakeman for what they said was stoking anti-Muslim sentiment ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani blasted President Trump on Tuesday for failing to make good on a promise to fully fund New York’s counterterrorism efforts.
Hochul says she is tired of waiting for the White House to restore the tens of millions of dollars, which she and the mayor argue threatens New Yorkers ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A spokesperson for FEMA said New York has not spent all of the federal money already allocated to New York for homeland security operations.
A newly created political action group has vowed to inject millions of dollars into the New York gubernatorial race to help get Blakeman elected — by highlighting Hochul’s ties to “(Mamdani) and the radical Marxist, Jihadi wing of the Democratic Party.”
The violent parolee charged with killing two men in a vicious 48-hour robbery spree should never have been freed — and Hochul is to blame, Blakeman said.
A federal judge has struck down New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, ruling that it is “simply beyond the limits of state law.”
Hochul said the state will consider challenging the decision of a federal judge who tossed the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act, a law requiring companies to pay for damages they inflicted contributing to pollution and climate change.
The White House on Tuesday fired back at New York Attorney General Letitia James, slamming the lefty pol amid reports that her office sought to dig up dirt on President Trump and his pals.
The Mamdani administration yesterday released the city’s first Racial Equity Plan — a citywide blueprint to reduce racial inequities — after years of delay.
The release comes just days after a Manhattan state court judge ruled that both the Mamdani and Adams administrations had broken the law by failing to release the charter-mandated plan on time. It was originally due in April 2024.
New York is even more unequal today than it was before the pandemic, according to a new report set to be released today by Mark Levine, the city’s comptroller.
An activist reverend and tenant organizers gathered outside DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo’s $1.4 million townhouse Tuesday after the champagne socialist was outed as a working class cosplayer.
The Mamdani administration and City Council are laying out dueling plans to prevent future Legionnaires’ outbreaks after the pneumonia-like illness left nearly a dozen dead and scores of others sickened on the Upper East Side this summer.
Council members grilled John Mangin, Mamdani’s pick for a key housing position, during a lengthy confirmation hearing on Tuesday, pressing him on his views on development, homeownership and member deference.
New York City’s public school system is set to release a policy for this coming school year on artificial intelligence — which will include a ban on the use of generative AI for students in 2-K through 8th grade.
The Ivy League banker fatally stabbed by a maniac in Times Square was a new mom who had just joyously celebrated her baby’s baptism and returned to work after maternity leave, online posts show.
The wife of a 68-year-old man who survived being stabbed in Times Square recounted Tuesday being ambushed by the mentally ill attacker who was shot to death by NYPD cops minutes later.
The stunned family of Times Square stabber Pamela Cisneros says she had a decades-long history of mental illness including postpartum depression, multiple hospitalizations — and a suicide attempt in which she threw herself on the subway tracks.
As firefighters and EMS members who responded to 9/11 get older, the FDNY is pushing for the federal government to add cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and other ailments to the list of covered 9/11 illnesses that could help survivors.
Thousands of FDNY 9/11 first responders are still battling depression, PTSD and other mental health conditions 25 years after working at Ground Zero, according to a new report.
A select group of transit aficionados gathered at a warehouse in Maspeth, Queens, on Tuesday after they were notified they’d won one of more than 60 MetroCard vending machines the MTA sold at an official auction.
The decommissioned Staten Island Ferry purchased by “Saturday Night Live” comedians Pete Davidson and Colin Jost is hosting a one-night-only stand-up show.
Red-faced Met Museum honchos admitted in a hastily called powwow with fuming wealthy donors that they had made a “mistake’’ in honoring convicted antisemite designer John Galliano.
A Yonkers resident has tested positive for West Nile Virus — the first confirmed case of the mosquito-borne illness in Westchester County this year, officials said.
Hochul has announced the first 10 projects backed by $200 million in state funding that’s been allocated to try and revitalize the capital city’s downtown core.
The projects are part of the governor’s $400 million Championing Albany’s Potential (CAP) initiative. The money is expected to bring in nearly $97.5 million in public and private investment and create nearly 300 housing units.
The Spa City will consider adding another large hotel in its urban core. Rochester-based developer Wilmorite Construction plans to propose building a five-story, 120-room hotel with 21 residential units on 1.63 acres at the corner of Congress and Federal streets.
Albany County announced new investments Tuesday to address addiction days after the kratom ban took effect.
A $95 million budget deficit in the Ichabod Crane Central School District has sparked renewed scrutiny of district finances and prompted a local parent to seek the removal of the school board president.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
