CORONAVIRUS & MONKEYPOX
1. HERE’S THE NY SCOOP
THE STATS:
| 916,733 Bivalent vaccines administered across NYC 592 new hospitalizations, up from 608 last week 11, 315 new cases, down from 10,325 last week |
GOOD NEWS
| Dumpster Diving is Gonezo – Last week, we wrote about the race to get rid of the rats with centralized trash cans. Today, the Dept of Sanitation started their first retrieval! Let’s see how this plays out. Can you smellllll what the MTA is cooking? – A scent detector is coming to a subway near you, and it’ll be the first to alert MTA attendants that its clean up time. Official name: Pee Pee Poo Poo Tracker |
BAD NEWS
| Masks On…Again? Is it just us, or is everyone sick? Covid cases are being resurrected, like John Travolta’s acting career after Pulp Fiction (Royale with cheese, anyone). Anyhoo, Get your masks on, cases have risen 55 percent over the past two weeks. |
GIVE US THE SCOOP
2. APPARENTLY, NEW YORK CITY INVENTED THE CHRISTMAS WE KNOW TODAY
| WAIT, WHAT?! Not only did NYC popularize the bacon egg n’ cheese, it also popularized Christmas as we know it today. Prior to the 1800s, Christmas wasn’t even recognized as a holy day and Santa Claus wasn’t the jolly, rotund man we see in the media today, but described as a “jolly, old elf”. So how did Christmas turn into the global holiday we know today, and what role did NYC play in this? A HOLIDAY TO UNITE THE COUNTRY After the Revolutionary War, America was still a relatively young country, and there were no shared cultures, traditions, let alone, language. Washington Irving, yes, the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow first saw the power of using the holiday to unite everyone. “Irving, a founder of the New-York Historical Society, author, essayist, biographer, historian and diplomat, recognized the potential of the holiday as a force capable of uniting the northern and southern colonies, old family Knickerbockers and new Irish and German immigrants, upper and lower social classes, and rich and poor.” He wrote books that stressed the holiday as one that everyone celebrated and popularized Santa Claus as we know today. He also falsified some history…but hey, its Christmas right? THE POWER OF CHRISTMAS Who better to unite Americans than good ol’ jolly St Nick? During the Civil War, another New Yorker, Thomas Nast, began to use Santa Claus as a symbol of national patriotism in propaganda. He was often painted handing presents out to soldiers. Soon after, Christmas became a national holiday that became more “American” than it was religious. Public schools began to celebrate Christmas and kids began to clamor for gifts and Santa. In 1896, Adolph Simon Ochs bought the New York Times building and began to host outdoor displays for the New Year(which turned into the ball drop). Macy’s followed with a Macy’s Day Parade to celebrate Thanksgiving in 1924, and ended the parade with Santa Claus pulling the slayyyyyy…I mean…sleigh. The period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s officially became the holiday season and Santa, Christmas lights and music all became an American tradition. Shortly after Macy’s first parade, workers at the Rockefeller Center put up the first Christmas Tree, starting the tradition of the Rockefeller Tree we see today! Did you know that about Christmas? Let us know your thoughts! |
OH HEY, HELLO, ciaooo!
3. LOOKING TO SPREAD SOME HOLIDAY CHEER THIS YEAR?
| Take this holiday season to give back to NYC by volunteering with NYC Cares. It’ll make you feel good, help someone else out and give you something to hold over cousin Shelly’s head the next time she asks you what you, “actually do at your job”. You can easily search through the filters to find an organization to volunteer with by putting in your avails, and issues you’re passionate about. Check it out! |
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