Friday on Today 7/20

We started the hour off with Today's Travel: Places To Add To Your List. Peter Greenberg gave some destinations to add to your places to see. At the top of the list is Greenland. Not where most people want to go in the dead of winter, but it is ground zero for global warming. See the glaciers before they're gone. You can also go kayaking. It is the world's largest island. Number two is Tasmania, which is 150 miles south of Australia. It's got 18 miles of parks and it's easy to get around. Not to mention you might just get to see a Tasmanian devil. They're cute little devils. Number three on the list is The Republic of Montenegro. It's smaller than Connecticut without the attitude--those were Peter's words, not mine. They've got great seafood coming in fresh every day. And finally on the list is Nicaragua, the largest country in Central America. It's like St. Bart's without the attitude and crowds.

Next was a segment called, Oh Baby: Easy Showers For Modern Moms. First of all, showers don't have to be all women anymore--I don't know why they ever did. Dads had just as much to do with making the babies, why shouldn't they be there? In other words, why should females be the only ones to suffer through watching the expectant mom opening baby booties and blankets for what seems like hours on end. I wanted my baby shower to be a regular party with men invited --especially my husband. But my family is too old school and set in their ways to break any traditions. As far as decorations, they suggested asking the mom-to-be her favorite color--though I don't really know why. Are you supposed to dye your furniture for the day? Then they showed a gigantic mobile you can make with construction paper and hang it from the ceiling. Ann Curry asked what for and was told it's a nice addition to the nursery. She agreed, but I think people waste too much time and energy on throwing parties these days. Just invite people over, serve them some food and drinks and give the gifts. What more could anybody ask for but some nice baby gifts? Isn't that enough? They also suggested soft drinks since preggy can't drink, nobody else should either. There was plenty of booze flowing at my baby shower--though not through me--and I didn't mind at all. If people are going to sit through this insufferable boredom, at least let them drink something that will make it a little more tolerable. One good idea was to create a scrapbook of family members so the little one will get to see where she came from. Also, you can create a personalized CD.

Next up was a little feature called Photo Frenzy: Paparazzi Gone Wild, which asks the question, "Do they go too far?" I think we all know the answer to that. Look what happened to Princess Diana. They showed some pictures and a video clip of one of the stars of CSI, Gary Dourdan, coming out of a nightclub and confronting a photog, then slamming his head into the ground. Maybe the paparazzi do go too far, but this looked pretty brutal on film. These paparazzi have to remember that celebrities are people first and foremost and deserve respect and peace. They'll never be totally left alone, but they shouldn't have to be constantly hounded either. And why do the paparazzi have to get up in their faces like that? It's so rude. Maybe they do deserve to get their heads slammed into the ground. They don't listen to the pleas by their celebrity prey to be left alone. Maybe that's the only way to get it through their heads--by slamming it in.

Today's Kitchen featured Grilling With Fruit. Peaches, to be more specific. They also grilled a chicken breast and made a peach glaze for it. The peaches were sliced in half and dipped in bourbon before being laid on the grill for a couple of minutes--just to get the grill marks. I guess it caramelizes them and makes them taste better with the chicken with peach glaze. They also made an arugula salad to go with it.

And then the cast of Hairspray--minus John Travolta--brought down the plaza with two numbers from the movie, which opens today, Run And Tell That and Big, Blond and Beautiful--sung by Queen Latifa, the new queen of musicals. She always looks like she's having so much fun singing and performing. That's probably why she's so successful.

They closed the show with quite a few images from the America The Beautiful segment while playing sappy background music, one of their favorite time killers.

Have a great weekend.

Till Monday.