For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold, with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene.
It uses terror to extort people.
But the murder of Carmi Galante marked the beginning of the end.
It sent the message that we can prosecute these people.
Listen to Law & Order Criminal Justice System on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning. This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.
Today's tip is that there is nothing wrong with pressing the easy button when you have the opportunity.
Solutions aren't always better just because they are hard.
Figure out lots of easy buttons in life, and you just might have more mental space, for what really matters.
Before Breakfast listeners of a certain age may remember the ad campaign from the office supply store Staples.
A small red button labeled Easy miraculously solved all kinds of challenges, from pens that run out of ink to hard math problems to changing twin babies' diapers at the same time.
The idea, of course, was that Staples made getting office supplies as easy as pressing a button.
The fantasy of having an easy button was so powerful that Staples even started selling an easy button desk toy.
Now I'm pretty sure that the desk toy will not solve any problems for you.
But you can find all kinds of metaphorical easy buttons in life.
Weeknight dinners can be pasta one night, tacos another, make your own pizza, breakfast for dinner, and a store -bought rotisserie chicken with a bagged salad.
I just meal planned for an entire week for you.
If you want variety, you can cook elaborate meals on the weekends, and then maybe have the leftovers as a dinner in the middle of the week, or do take out some night.
You have pressed the easy button, and still had a satisfying string of dinners.
You can choose a kind of wine you like, and always bring that as a hostess gift.
Seriously, just order a dozen bottles, and if you get invited to more parties than that in a year, I'm thrilled for you.
But most of us probably won't be, so it will all work out.
Cash can be a very easy gift for a wide variety of occasions, and for a solid percentage of those occasions, the person will prefer a cash to whatever you might have picked out.
So go ahead and press the easy button, if it's going to be appropriate.
For my female listeners, a simple black dress can be your easy button outfit for any event.
Unless you are the sort of person who is frequently photographed for the tabloids, no one is going to notice that you are wearing the same thing on more than one occasion.
If you are supposed to bring a homemade dessert somewhere, bring slice and bake cookies, they work just fine.
Have a go -to karaoke song, paint walls, and Benjamin Moore White Dove.
Have a restaurant you always suggest to visiting out -of -town guests.
I believe that part of adulting is knowing about a certain number of easy buttons and availing yourself of them whenever the situation permits.
When we are young, we often think that everyone is watching and judging us, and so we need to impress people with our command of a wide variety of things, places, outfits, meals.
Then you get older and realize no one is noticing.
Indeed, people tend to be happier with surefire hits than with experimentation that can go awry.
At 6 o 'clock on Tuesday, your crew is going to be happier with pasta than with some elaborate new seafood dish that your gourmet magazine said was amazing.
Maybe it is, but you can find that out when you make it on Saturday.
On Tuesday, press the easy button.
I don't like the phrase, taking the easy way out, because it's pejorative.
In many cases, the easy way is not only fine, it might be preferable to something harder.
Save your time and energy for situations where it matters or might truly improve things.
With most other things, pressing the easy button is perfectly fine.
In the meantime, this is Laura, thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura, at lauravandercam .com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold, with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene.
It uses terror to extort people.
But the murder of Carmi Galante marked the beginning of the end.
It sent the message that we can prosecute these people.
Listen to Law & Order Criminal Justice System on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Jessica Acevedo, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, The 7M TikTok Cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
