The lighter side of The News: Bills, bills, bills; An expensive bookmark; Insurance planning

Gov. Kathy Hochul began her state budget briefing on Tuesday morning with a note of congratulations.

“What a performance – not now, last night,” she said, a nod to the Bills’ win over the Steelers that drew laughter and applause from her Albany audience.

She moved on to what she called her “Super Bowl” team of staffers and elected officials, including “our Josh Allen of the day, our state budget director Blake Washington.”

Then Hochul introduced Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat and Dallas Cowboys fan.

“We won’t talk football, necessarily,” she teased Heastie, whose team was shellacked by the Green Bay Packers. “A little rough weekend for you.”

Heastie then fired back from the audience with a reference to the fact the Cowboys are 2-0 in Super Bowls versus the Bills.

But Hochul had a quick response.

“Are we cutting budgets from here?” she joked. “How much does a speaker get?”

People would read more if every book came with a prize inside it like this one.

The story heard about recently begins last month at the holiday party thrown by the Association of Italian-American Women at Classics V in Amherst.

One member, Elaine Lydon, typically brings used books to give away to fellow members at their meetings.

Lydon set out 30 or so at the December event, including one snagged by a woman who was sitting at Lydon’s table.

“And she’s looking through the book and all of a sudden she goes, ‘Oh my God, there’s 100 dollars in this book,’ “ Lydon recounted. “And I said, ‘Oh, my God, those are the books that I brought?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, well, here, here’s your money.’ “

Lydon said the woman wouldn’t accept any of the money as a reward, nor would she allow Lydon to buy her a drink as thanks.

Lydon said she had forgotten even putting the money in the book but believes it was meant to be used as payment for a recent massage therapy…