Monday on Today 9/3

Happy Labor Day. What a gorgeous weekend we're having here in the Northeast. Sunny and low 70's every day. There are going to be a few changes to this blog which I started implementing last week. Instead of summarizing everything that happened on the last hour of the show, I'm only going to give you what I think was worthy of my time, therefore worthy of yours. Normally that would cut out most of the information, but The Today Show is extending to a fourth hour--can you believe it? So, maybe the blog will be much shorter, maybe not. I'll give you what I think was noteworthy and hopefully that will save me time and not waste yours.

So let's get started with Today's noteworthy stories. Watching Your Back: See Something, Say Something. Bill Stanton conducted an experiment where he started spray painting graffiti on a building and waited for someone to say or do something to stop him. Lots of people looked but no one called the cops or got involved in any way. He's trying to get the message across to people to become heroes. You don't have to physically stop someone during public disturbances, but you can call the cops. When he asks people why they don't call, people tell him they don't want to be involved in police reports, but you can remain anonymous. Or people will say they thought someone else would call. If everybody is always leaving it all up to someone else, nothing is ever going to get done. Stand up and do something! Be a hero. You can see more of "Wild" Bill Stanton, Watching Your Back tonight on Dateline. I'll be watching.

Bobbie Brown had make-up tips for back to school, but I didn't find this noteworthy. If you do, you can see them at todayshow.com. It was mostly make-overs and these teachers and students are unlikely to duplicate the results themselves.

Helping Hand: Book Drive For Thai Children. This story was very noteworthy. Nineteen year-old Andrew Titley, with the help of his seventeen year-old brother Trevor, collect book donations for these underprivileged children, most of whom are being raised by their grandparents while their parents work in Bangkok. Libraries are filled with books they no longer need and lots of people throw out used books, so why not donate them to kids who are trying to learn English? Kudos to these kids.

Leonard's Look had an interesting (therefore noteworthy) story about the King and Queen of Jumping Beans in Albuquerque, NM. They have the world's largest jumping bean company and are proud of it. I had some of these when I was a kid and was fascinated with them. They are moth larva that are sensitive to light and heat for months until they either die or hatch into moths. I don't know how they get them, but they help out the locals and economy and have rekindled interest in the beans. This made me want to get some for my kids.

Another noteworthy bit was Peace Players: Live Together, Play Together about two brothers who took basketball to places like Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Middle East. The message: if you can play together, you can be friends. And so far it's working. They showed an Arab Palestinian kid who lived across from a Jewish kid and the two had never met until they played basketball. Now they're friends. So there you have another set of brothers doing good deeds for people half-way around the world.

Today's Kitchen featured Last Minute Labor Day Barbecue with marinated chicken and pork along with teriyaki and fresh ginger.

And that's a wrap. Tomorrow I'm going to open house at my son's preschool so there will be no Tuesday on Today this week. Till Wednesday.