The New York Times has finally reported on a trend that I can get behind: New Yorkers, according to our paper of record, are now eating dinner not at 8 p.m. or even later, but—heaven forbid!—at the eminently reasonable hour of 6 p.m.
The Times speculated that this is a side effect of the increasing numbers of people who work from home, and that many diners may not actually truly desire to eat at an earlier hour:
These days, the boundaries between one's professional and social lives have collapsed: Though this fall may bring an uptick in commuting, only 8 percent of Manhattan employees have been going into an office five days a week, according to a May survey from the Partnership for New York City. And when work is home and home is work, an early meal is one of the easiest ways to assert that the day has come to some kind of conclusion. Not that 5 p.m. is necessarily when people want to eat, says S. Margot Finn, a food studies lecturer at the University of Michigan; it's just "when they want to be somewhere else."
But may I suggest that New Yorkers, perhaps realizing that it’s nice to see some friends and eat a tasty meal and then be in bed at a sensible time (9 p.m.) have finally seen the glorious light of the good life?
Here’s what else we’re reading:
- The Times-Union reports that while Governor Kathy Hochul states she "was not aware" that a company the state paid $637 million for COVID tests was a major campaign donor, the company’s founder held a fundraiser for Hochul just a month before the deal for the tests was signed. Oh, and the state sure seems to have overpaid for those tests!
- In other Hochul news, our governor announced a $5 million initiative to install surveillance cameras on all MTA subway cars. "You think Big Brother is watching you on the subways, you're absolutely right. That is our intent," she said.
- The Andrew Cuomo rehabilitation tour continues apace, and while we would normally advise you to ignore our former governor, this perhaps unintentionally revealing interview with Cindy Adams is worth a read, if only to imagine Cuomo moodily cradling a glass of red wine, a single tear tracking down his face as he wonders why he has no friends anymore.
- Lots of confusion about the mayor's hiring freeze!
- Due in part to an alleged insurance scam, the City has not been pruning trees in Brooklyn and Queens.
- On Tuesday, Gregory Acevedo, a 48-year-old held at the City's jail barge in the Bronx, jumped into the water from the barge’s roof, and is reportedly in serious condition. More, via the Daily News: "Investigators were looking into whether the incident began with a use of force by correction officers, said sources. There was some kind of clash in the recreation yard, said the sources, and officers used pepper spray on Acevedo. He then tried to escape them by climbing the fence, the sources said." In other jail news, two correction officers pled guilty to taking bribes to bring contraband into Rikers facilities.
- Here's an interview with all-but-assured future member of Congress Dan Goldman in which he says lots of words. Some of those words kicked off a bit of a kerfuffle with his former opponent Yuh-Line Niou:
- In a twist called "Clarence Thomas sucks," the Supreme Court will in fact hear a case brought by an NYPD detective fighting the City’s vaccine mandate. Meanwhile, when reporters asked Mayor Adams about the logic of dropping the vaccine mandate for private sector workers while maintaining it for City employees, he had this to say: "I don't think anything dealing with COVID makes sense, and there's no logical pathway." Reassuring.
- Relatedly:
