Monday on Today 7/9

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend. The movie Transformers did as it took the number 1 spot at the box office, followed by Ratatouille (last week's number 1) and Live Free or Die Hard (last week's number 2.) The Today Show is asking people to send in photos for the America the Beautiful segment--they must be running low on content again--where they showcase pictures from around the country sent in by viewers. Go to their website for more information. I believe the address is Today.msnbc.com.



The big story of the morning was about Miss New Jersey being blackmailed. I can't even write this with a straight face. Why is this news? It seems beauty queen, Amy Palumbo, put some controversial pictures up on her myspace page for friends and family only and they got into the hands of someone threatening to make them public if she doesn't give up the crown. Wow, imagine that. She publishes pictures of herself on the web doing God knows what and then complains that they were meant to be seen in private. Give me a break! Quit your whining and talk to somebody who has some real problems, like a kid who lost a parent in Iraq. Or a parent who lost a kid in a car accident. And if your pictures are so innocent, as you claim, then why not just tell the blackmailer to release them? Who cares? Ahh, but she must be hiding something, otherwise she would have already. She claims they break the "moral clause." They're probably pictures of her making out with her girlfriends. Blackmailer, if you're reading, just release the embarrassing pictures and get it over with. This girl needs a lesson on what a crisis really is. And for future beauty queens out there, keep your personal pictures off the web if you want to keep them to yourself! And stop complaining when someone catches you doing something "immoral."



Today's Travel focused on Splurge vs. Steal getaways from a splurge in Stoneover Farm, Massachusetts at around $380/night to a steal at The Valley Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ. Al Roker couldn't contain his laughter at that name. There were many others in between, but my 2 year-old was screaming at the time and I couldn't write them all down--too many anyway. This segment basically took some high priced hotels and then gave some cheaper ones--how original.



Moving onto deeper issues like Girls and Body Image, they featured a book by plus sized model, Emme entitled: "What Are You Hungry For?" It focuses on body diversity. Not everybody can be or should be a size 2. Attractiveness has little to do with body size. It's a good message to get across. I hope it works. They also give more information from the book of the obvious and that's that parents need to be role models. If you eat a nutritious diet and live a healthy life-style, then guess what? Your kids probably will, too.



Surviving The Dog Days of Summer was focused on--you guessed it--keeping your pets safe in summer heat. Andrea Arden, pet expert (how do you get that title? I wonder) gave some good tips like using sunscreen for pets. And don't laugh, my dog got melanoma. You can buy cooling vests or just wet a bandanna, freeze it and tie it around their necks. This is something I actually used on myself and it works. But only for a few minutes. It's a comfortable few minutes though. They also showed a pool alarm that goes off whenever something more than 10 pounds hits the water. Good idea but what if you have a 5 pound yorkie? Crates are a must for traveling and so is something called Contenteze--like a doggie downer. A great idea for high-strung dogs. In this segment's page from the book of obvious information ,they said to make sure your pets can't get to the antifreeze. In case anyone doesn't know, it's deadly! The best part of all this was an adorable pug that Natalie had on a leash and a kitten that kept mewing throughout the entire feature. It was nonstop.



Today's Kitchen featured sweet and savory foods for the grill such as marinated shrimp and strawberry and avocado salad with some kind of vinaigrette dressing. It looked pretty good. Also, the off-camera kitten kept up the noise while the food was being prepared, prompting more laughter from Al. That cat refused to be upstaged by anyone--even Al Roker.



Till tomorrow.