Good Tuesday morning.
Growing up without siblings and with limited TV access, I did a lot of reading as a child.
I loved reading so much, I even read in the shower and also under the covers long after lights out. Though I feel like my attention span has deteriorated significantly – much like pretty much everyone else in the modern era – I still every once in a while find myself staying up late to finish a particularly gripping book.
There are some childhood favorites that really stuck with me. Among them, in no particular order: The Cricket in Times Square, The Rats of Nimh, Watership Down, Little Women, the Narnia series, The Borrowers, the Paddington Bear series, and, last but not least, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
I don’t remember what age I was when I read Alice. I understood it as a fairytale and loopy fantasy.
I had no idea – honestly, until I started Googling around for today’s post – that some believe the author, Lewis Carroll (the pen name of mathematician, poet, and photographer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) – intended the book as a satire and/or a critique of Victorian society, and that his attachment to/fascination with young girls has been hotly debated and sparked criticism decades after his death in 1898.
I actually kind of wish I didn’t know these things now, because it makes me look at his work differently, which is how I also feel about Dr. Seuss. But I guess part of growing up is about having one’s youthful naivety shattered. Age is all about learning to live with disillusionment.
When it comes to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, I have some very strong feelings about the characters. Alice is, in fact, not my favorite. I was very partial to the White Rabbit (if you noticed a trend among my favorite childhood books, you probably would have guessed this), and also the Hatter – who was NOT, by the way, the “Mad Hatter” in Lewis’ telling, though he has come to be widely seen that way.
The Hatter appears in “Chapter 7 – A Mad Tea Party” of Alice’s Adventures, joined by the March Hare and the Doormouse. He tells a story of having argued with Time, which was once on his side, and also of being sentenced to death by the Queen of Hearts for murdering time. It’s complicated to try to explain all this to someone who hasn’t read the book.
The Hatter’s attire is not actually described by Carroll, but was memorialized by artist John Tenniel, who did the illustrations for the book’s first edition, and depicted the character as wearing a gigantic top hat with a hatband reading “In this style 10/6”. That is an old Victorian price tag, which means the hat cost 10 shillings and 6 pence.
As an aside hatters were supposedly “mad” because of exposure to mercury nitrate – a toxic substance used to make their product that, after prolonged exposure, caused a various of mental and physical ailments, including hallucinations.
Based on the hatter’s hat, today – October 6 – is National Mad Hatter Day, a good opportunity to embrace silly light-heartedness, which we could all arguably use a little more of these days.
It’s going to be lovely today – crisp, sunny, and a little on the cooler side, with highs reaching only into the high 50s.
In the headlines…
President Trump reversed course on Monday and announced that his super PAC would now pay for the television ads promoting him that have been airing nationwide at taxpayer expense.
In a post on his social media platform, Mr. Trump wrote, “I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”
Trump signed an executive order Monday waiving restrictions on the use of tax-exempt red-dye diesel, which he said will ease the pain at the pump for truckers and lower the cost of groceries nationwide.
“Tonight I’m going to sign a historic executive order to officially waive the off-road requirement and allow anyone to purchase tax-free red dye diesel for any reason,” Trump said at a rally in Nebraska after admitting he didn’t “know what the hell” red dye diesel is.
In recent days, several Midwestern and Southern states have already sought to tamp down the rising diesel costs by increasing access to dyed diesel for use in highway vehicles.
Trump wants to make daylight saving time permanent. Senator Tom Cotton does not. On Saturday, that disagreement led the president to share what he said was the Arkansas Republican’s cellphone number on social media.
Sen. Chuck Schumer Monday warned Democrats will block most of President Trump’s judicial and cabinet nominees if they retake control of the Senate in the midterms.
With Democrats boasting decent odds of flipping the four seats they need, the Democratic leader said the White House would have to shift course on only nominating judges that back his right-wing agenda if the GOP loses the chamber.
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who later admitted to sexually abusing children while a high school wrestling coach before entering politics, died over the weekend at his home in the Chicago area. He was 84.
Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, who was as known for his scandals — including a $279,000 hush-money settlement to his church secretary — as he was for his preachings, has died, his widow announced Monday. He was 86.
Anonymous activists smashed a glass door at the entrance of Cornell’s Day Hall and painted messages on the walls of the building in response to the alleged 2024 Chi Phi gang rape at approximately 3 a.m. on Monday.
Cornell University students staged a mass rally on Monday voicing solidarity with a classmate whose gang-rape allegations have ignited a national uproar and demanding that the Ivy League school take firmer action against sexual violence on campus.
In the first large gathering on campus since revelations about sexual assault allegations, students and faculty members convened outside an administration building that had been the target of vandalism overnight.
Some of the fraternity brothers later accused of sexual assault at Cornell University attempted to contain the allegations in the weeks following the incident, apparently worried about what would happen to their own reputations and futures on campus.
Cornell University leaders, already embattled over their handling of sexual assault allegations on campus, received another blow when the school’s faculty senate gave notice of plans to vote on a rare resolution of no confidence in the school’s administrators.
The Cornell case highlights how the Trump administration has shifted its enforcement of a civil rights law from allegations of sexual misconduct to issues like blocking protections for transgender students.
Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff had spent his tenure navigating federal-funding disruptions and antisemitism controversies—until a campus sexual-assault furor erupted.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide emergency Monday as measles cases continue to spike across central and western New York.
Statewide, 108 cases of measles have been reported through Oct. 3, including 92 cases reported since mid-July in “under-immunized, rural communities” across 18 New York counties, according to the governor’s office.
Hochul expanded the state’s free community college program to include adults who already have degrees. Starting in January 2027, the state will pay for tuition, fees, and books for New Yorkers aged 25 to 55 who return to study high-demand fields.
More than 80% of students who transitioned to homeschooling in New York have been chronically absent in recent years.
For the first time since 2024, New York’s minimum wage will remain untouched, sitting at $17.00/hour downstate and $16.00/hour upstate.
New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie last month took a multiday birthday trip to party with a former Dallas Cowboy in Rio de Janeiro alongside an influential lobbyist with business before the state — and neither will say who picked up the tab.
The state DOT is slow-walking its plan to address urgent safety concerns along Manhattan’s treacherous West Side Highway — and is now 12 months and counting behind the 18-month timeline it announced for its study back in 2024.
A former prosecutor in the New York attorney general’s office sent an email to state Attorney General Letitia James defiantly stating that he will not return “confidential and privileged” materials that he claims provide evidence of political corruption within the office.
New York, where a dream wedding costs over $53,000, is the second-most expensive state for divorce, running soured sweethearts more than $27,000 to officially part ways, according to new data.
Over 300 of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s fellow DSA members are calling on City Hall to halt a pivotal $1.2 billion public housing construction project – siding with tenants who want to stay put in their current homes.
The deadline to file exemption applications for New York City’s pied-à-terre tax is today, and the city is treating its notices as in effect while it appeals a judge’s order to cancel them.
Mamdani has proven his ability to seize and hold the spotlight with zeitgeist-y issues, but ceded the spotlight on AI regulation to Council Speaker Julie Menin as concerns over the emerging technology are becoming the defining political issue of the moment.
As concerns over artificial intelligence rise, New York City lawmakers grilled representatives for some of the major A.I. companies on Monday — and emerged with little clarity over how they plan to address looming threats.
A dozen interviews with witnesses to recent sweeps suggest that the problem of lost belongings persists during homelessness encampment sweeps, often defying Mamdani’s policies and the court order.
Pressure is mounting on Mamdani to revive a $650 million plan to reduce pollution at Hunts Point Produce Market in the South Bronx, where diesel-spewing refrigerated trailers contribute to some of the worst air quality in the city.
More than 10,000 New York City families who’ve been waiting for child care vouchers will now receive them, Mamdani announced Monday.
Mamdani is expected on Thursday to introduce legislation in the City Council that would give individuals a “private right of action,” or the right to file civil lawsuits against companies on the basis of unfair and abusive business practices.
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed announced new campaign stops that will feature Democratic fundraising heavyweights former President Barack Obama, Mamdani, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
The New York City parks department on Monday announced the lights will stay on until 2 a.m. at one soccer field in each of the five boroughs this fall, then again next spring, in an extension of a program designed to make it easier for groups to secure playing time.
Former Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies announced they’d picked a new party chair at a late night zoom vote Sunday evening that appears to be in violation of multiple court orders.
A Brooklyn NYPD detective who admitted to giving false information during a criminal investigation has been forced to retire, ending an 18-year career over what a department judge called “cutting corners,” according to disciplinary records.
Jewish parents say they’ve been forced to yank their kids out of Big Apple public schools since Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel three years ago, blaming educators — like the Brooklyn teacher who praised the Oct. 7 mastermind — for fostering hate.
House Democrats are expanding their target list of GOP-held seats to flip, in a bid to project confidence less than a month out from the midterm elections.
A Republican congressional candidate accused Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan of sending his kids to schools near Washington, DC instead of in the suburban New York district he claims as his primary residence.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is considering a run for president in 2028, said at a closed-door fund-raiser on Monday in New York that El-Sayed’s race for Senate in Michigan was part of a “generational project” for the progressive movement.
As the race for NY-21 enters its final stretch, Republican Anthony Constantino is sparing no effort to attack his opponent Blake Gendebien, who continues to receive support from national Democratic organizations to win a seat once considered a long shot.
A disaffected Republican on Monday ended her long-shot campaign for Schenectady City Council and endorsed Conservative-backed Rachael Ward’s bid to oust Democratic incumbent Justin Chaires. Ward is a registered Democrat.
A 23-year-old man was charged with fatally shooting Arell K. Agapito in the Pine Hills neighborhood two weeks ago, Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox announced during a news conference Monday afternoon.
Saratoga County has approved a full property tax exemption on the county portion for fully disabled wartime veterans.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
