Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at the visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to New York. We’ll also look at the first full-fledged casino to open in the city.
In a city where 180,000 tourists arrive every day, it’s a safe bet that 179,998 of them won’t get the attention that a certain couple in their late 70s will command after they fly in today.
King Charles III, the British monarch, and Queen Camilla will land on the third day of their state visit to the United States. The visit was timed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence. But tensions over the war with Iran — including President Trump’s blast last month that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “not Winston Churchill” — had once threatened to overshadow whatever fence-mending the king’s genteel presence might accomplish.
Today the royals will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial and talk with firefighters, police officers and others who descended on the World Trade Center site after the attacks nearly 25 years ago. They are also expected to meet with families of victims.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Monday that he would attend the ceremony “alongside a number of other elected officials,” including Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey. But “that will be the extent of my meeting with the king.” They will not meet privately.
After the ceremony, the king and queen will go their separate ways for a couple of hours. He will go to Harlem to see an after-school urban farm.
Camilla will go to the New York Public Library, becoming the first royal to visit the library since its founding in 1895, by coincidence the year her husband’s maternal grandfather (later King George VI) was born.
Like any well-mannered guest, she will carry a gift — a Roo, as in the little kangaroo in A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” stories. The library has five furry Pooh toys — Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet, Tigger and Pooh himself.
The Pooh was a first-birthday present for Milne’s son, the real-life Christopher Robin. The rest of the plush little menagerie came along by the time Christopher Milne was 6 years old and “Winnie the Pooh” was published.
Anthony Marx, the president and chief executive of the library, said there had been a sixth stuffed animal, a Roo. But Christopher Milne lost him in an orchard, Marx said. The five that remained emigrated to the United States in 1947 and resided in the Manhattan office of the American publisher of the Pooh books until they were donated to the library 40 years later.
“We love the idea of her bringing a replacement Roo,” Marx told me.
What about the butterflies-in-the-stomach moment of coming face to face with a queen?
“By all accounts, she is lovely,” Marx said. “But I think anybody gets a little nervous when meeting a royal.”
Never mind that Marx said he had experience with such encounters: In 2015 in London, he met Charles, who was merely the Prince of Wales at the time. Marx said he did not remember what they talked about.
Today, Marx said, he will not ask what Camilla’s favorite book is. If she asked him about “Winnie the Pooh,” he will be ready: He reread it on Monday night, saying he needed “a refresher” because “it’s been a long time since my kids were little.”
He said he would show Camilla the Pooh toys, along with other items from the library’s collection, including a letter from Queen Elizabeth I. He also plans to show her an engraving by Paul Revere of the Boston Massacre, as well as a notebook that George Washington kept during the French and Indian War, years before the Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
“I’m sure she’ll particularly appreciate our lions” in front of the library’s Beaux-Arts building on Fifth Avenue, Marx said, “because you can’t be a royal without needing patience and fortitude.”
Weather
Today, expect mostly cloudy conditions and a chance of showers in the afternoon. Temperatures will near 61 before dropping to around 50 tonight. Showers are expected to continue.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until May 14 (Solemnity of the Ascension).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If someone who has a ton of followers who is not necessarily involved in theater suddenly says, ‘I’m involved in this production,’ that could be a gateway for their audience to also fall in love with theater.” — Rachel Sussman, a lead producer of the musical “Suffs,” on why well-known figures like Kim Kardashian, former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have credits as backers of plays and musicals.
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A casino finally opens in New York City
The first full-scale commercial casino in New York City opened on Tuesday, with live table games, dealers and cards.
The first gamblers took their places, and the dice began rolling onto the red felt at Resorts World New York City. It was a symbolic moment that signaled the end of decades in which gambling companies tried and failed to secure a license in the city.
My colleague Corey Kilgannon writes that hundreds of gamblers showed up on opening day. After rushing up the escalators to the gambling hall — which is longer than a football field — they seemed to hesitate with the wonder of children on Christmas morning. Then they swarmed in.
Chiree Gilliam settled in at a craps table and, after a half-dozen tosses, gave the new casino her seal of approval.
“I like the atmosphere,” said Gilliam. “This place is definitely livelier than other casinos, which makes sense because we’re in New York City.” Until Tuesday, the closest full casinos to the city were in the Poconos, the Catskills, Atlantic City or Connecticut, where Gilliam said she regularly frequented casinos like Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.
The New York State Gaming Commission approved three applications for casinos in the city. Bally’s was granted a license to operate at Ferry Point in the Bronx, and a Hard Rock casino will open in Queens next to Citi Field, the home of the Mets. But since Resorts World was already a functioning racino — a racetrack with video lottery terminals — all it had to do was renovate, to make room for the new tables, and hire more employees. The other two casinos are expected to open around 2030.
METROPOLITAN diary
Clowning around
Dear Diary:
It was a hot July afternoon, and I was on the No. 5 train returning to my law office. I took a seat, loosened my tie and looked at my phone.
Across the car was a mother with an irritable young daughter who would not be quiet or sit still.
When the train doors opened at 14th Street, in walked a clown in full regalia, presumably on his way to a birthday party or some other clown gig.
The cranky child stopped whining immediately. She tugged urgently at her mother while pointing at the clown.
Sensing an audience, he approached the girl, pulled several balloons from his jacket pocket, quickly came up with a reasonable balloon-animal version of the parrot on her T-shirt and handed it to her.
The dozen or so people in the car erupted in applause. The clown, without a word, got off the train when it pulled into the 42nd Street station.
— Peter B. Cohen
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city.
The post Charles, Camilla and a Pooh Gift for the N.Y. Public Library appeared first on New York Times.
