“Weekend Update – News that Matters” is a weekly feature that offers brief overviews of important news that you may have missed during a busy holiday weekend. Here’s what, no pun intended, may have flown under your radar in the period December 6 through December 9, 2024.
@BARTLEBY
[Editor’s Note: @Bartleby is our newest addition to the “News That Matters” reports published throughout the week. Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” is likely one of the greatest practical jokes ever to make it into print by an American author, and it is in Bartleby’s (and Melville’s) honor that we name this section. If there any comments, please note my policy as relates thereto: “I would prefer not to make any change.”]
The Language of Food-Borne Illness-Driven Recalls and Warnings
While so-called words of the year that have gained notice in the past few weeks have included brain rot, brat, and kakistocracy (but not its cousin, theatrocracy, or rule by theatregoers), what’s really come into the public and healthcare lexicon of late has been a flurry of words and phrases including food-borne illness, recall, voluntary recall, outbreak, and, of course, deli meat.
Indeed, there’s been a weekly – if not more frequent – procession of food recalls and other similar actions, and city and state officials have argued that this chain of events shows that such activity indicates that our food safety system is all Sir Garnet, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The kitchen and start at the OKA Grill House at the Hilton Bogota Corferias
In short, detecting outbreaks and illnesses is not a sign that our food safety system is working. Rather, if – despite the massive network of standards and inspectors we have – the current system has not been able to significantly reduce these outbreaks in over a quarter of a century, it’s safe to say that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The year was 2023 and Boar’s Head had just hired Terrence Boyce to fill a newly-created position. “The government found a bunch of deficiencies or deviations and I guess I was brought in as a preventive and a corrective measure,” Boyce later told ABC News. But once he began to recommend corrective actions, he was dismissed.
It’s important to understand that detecting more outbreaks and illnesses is not a sign that our food safety system is working. Rather, it’s a signal that the system itself is sick. And we need more people like Terrence Boyce to take corrective action.
To summarize our vocabulary lesson for today, a food recall occurs when a food producer takes a product off the market because there is reason to believe that it may cause consumers to become ill. In some situations, government agencies may request or require a food recall.
A food product that has been recalled due to possible germ contamination or illness can leave germs around a kitchen and contaminate surfaces, including the drawers and shelves in the kitchen’s refrigerator
Hence, if one has had the unfortunate luck to have prepared a recalled product, it is important to throw out the product and clean all surfaces. N.B. It is not necessary to call in a hazmat team.
Your humble scrivener will end with this thought: The CDC-published Food Net data, the ultimate scorekeeper of how the United States is performing in food safety, shows that, over the past 25 years of tracking the incidence of illnesses due to pathogens often transmitted via food as a rate (number of illnesses per 100,000 members of the population), the results are very disturbing. For pathogens of concern, such as salmonella, shiga toxin-producing E coli, campylobacter, and listeria, the incidence of food-borne illness in the country has not moved the needle very much if at all over the past quarter century and, in some cases, the number of cases has, in fact, actually increased.
A courthouse in Brooklyn.
@DEADLINE
United Healthcare CEO Shooting. Police in Altoona, Pennsylvania arrested a person of interest they believe is connected to last Wednesday’s shooting of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson. The man in custody was identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangi, a 2020 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. New York City officials said that he was found with a ghost gun that was believed to have been used in the killing, as well as a fake ID and a handwritten, three-page document indicating his motivation. Chief Detective Joseph Kenny said the document in Mangione’s possession indicated some “ill will toward corporate America.”
Not guilty! A jury found Daniel Penny, a former U.S. Marine, not guilty in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man whom he was restraining on a New York City subway car. Neely had entered the subway car Penny was on in a loud and angry, manner, yelling threats as he boarded the train. He shouted that he was hungry, thirsty and wanted to be sent back to jail, a fact conceded by the district attorney’s office prosecuting the case.
EPA Bans Two Known Carcinogens Used in Everyday Products. The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Monday the ban of two known carcinogens – perc and PCE – that are used in a variety of consumer products and industrial settings. The agency also issued a complete ban of trichloroethylene, a substance found in common consumer and manufacturing products including degreasing agents, furniture care and auto repair product, and banned perc, also known as tetrachloroethylene, and PCE, both industrial solvents long used in applications such as dry cleaning and auto repair.
Bang. You’re Dead. A “mysterious” illness has killed at least 143 in Congo. The first case was reported on October 24 in the southwestern part of the country and dozens more followed. The undefined illness has also sicked some 370 additional people. Late this week, Africa CDC said that it had recorded a total of 79 deaths caused by the illness, while local officials told Reuters that 143 have died. The World Health Organization said it is aware of the reports and is working with officials in the DRC to investigate the source of the illness. “WHO is working with the national authorities to follow-up on reports of an unidentified disease and to understand the situation,” the global health agency said in a statement. “We have dispatched a team to the area to collect samples for laboratory investigations.”
A new Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max in desert titanium
Apple Set to Release iOS 18.2. Apple will release the next version on Monday and it will come chock full of new Apple Intelligence features including ChatGPT integration with Siri, Image Playground, and Genmoji. Apple Intelligence is supposed on all iPhone 16 models, the iPhone 15 Pro, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Happy Birthday Fifth Avenue! Manhattan’s storied Fifth Avenue celebrated ist 200th anniversary on Sunday, marking the day with a pedestrian-onkly zone between 48th and 55th streets, with a variety of festive activities. The luxe lane was created by Casmir Goerk’s 1785 survey and called Middle Road therein. It first received the name Fifth Avenue in 1811. In 1824, which is the year being celebrated for the anniversary, the lower section starting at 13th Street down to Washington Square Park was added, creating what today runs from West 143 Street in Harlem.
On the Next Episode, Andy Brings Otis the Town Drunk Aunt Bea’s Hot Breakfast. In Krabi, Thailand, two highly intoxicated tourists were placed into wheelbarrows and wheeled back to their hostel by a Thai policeman. Sergeant Major Saneg Jualaong found the two women, who were wearing swimwear, at a dive bar near their hostel. Images of the women, who were photographed unconscious on the trolleys, were posted to social media. Jualaong said that he knew “… what it’s like to have a daughter and how much we worry about them,” adding that he thought “about their parents back at home” as well. Jualaong said that the women were too drunk to speak …or stand,” and that he worried that “they could have an accident, such as falling into the seat.”
Apple’s circular stainless steel elevator in its flagship store on Fifth Avenue
@IN DEPTH
BIG APPLE HOTEL RATES CLIMB TO HIGHEST LEVEL EVER
Hotel rates in New York City have recovered from their pandemic lows and have since climbed beyond that as tourists and businessmen once again fill the city’s restaurant reservation bookings, shops, and sidewalks. A quick look around midtown or the Theatre District reveals a revving economic engine that, just a little over two years ago, had almost been given up for dead.
Indeed, the city’s hotel prices hit new highs in September and October of this year. The average price of a hotel room in the city that never sleeps in September climbed to $417, on average, according to CoStar, a company that tracks such information.
The only city or jurisdiction with more expensive hotels for the same time period was Maui, CoStar.said.
In recent weeks, the average monthly cost per night figure was $335 in recent weeks.
Still, there are times and dates during which visitors to the Big Apple can pay less.
“As occupancy levels continue to soar, New York City’s hotel sector is as vibrant as ever, and NYC Hotel Week offers visitors a range of ways to experience it – from luxury stays to boutique experiences – and an incredible value this winter.”
Front desk at the Hotel Hilton New York Midtown
@BRIEFLY NOTED
I now pronounce you… In the weeks following Donald Trump’s victory at the polls, New York City’s Marriage Bureau has seen a dramatic increase in new unions. The city does not keep statistics on gender or immigration status, if any, but figures appear to be ahead by as far as 33%.
Lucky Number 7! An addiction to gambling in New York is quietly taking a toll, clinicians there are saying, adding that the social stigma around what’s known as the “hidden addiction” prevents people from taking advantage of the state’s treatment resources. A study found that online gambling is a public health threat and said that the effects of the legalization of online gambling in New York State were already being felt there.
Paging Dr. Shylock. In the United Kingdom, doctors at the National Health Service say that antisemitism has been rising since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel.
Sad songs say so much. Elton John told the audience at “The Devil Wears Prada” that he has lost his vision. He commented that he couldn’t see the show, but he enjoyed hearing it.
Timothy Perry, Jesse Sokolow, Jonathan Spira, Kurt Stolz, and Paul Riegler contributed to this issue of Midweek Update.
(Photos: Accura Media Group)
