Wednesday on Today 9/13

New and Noteworthy yesterday was The Rapp Report with highlights of Jill Rappaport's interview with Ralph Lauren in a segment entitled Ralph Lauren Revisited. He is still very hands on even though he's old enough and rich enough to retire. But he loves what he does and wants to make sure it gets done right. There was a star studded gala honoring the famous designer which included the likes of Mayor Bloomberg, Barbara Walters, Vera Wang, Martha Stewart, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick and Dustin Hoffman, all singing Ralph's praises.

Today's Style featured Mia Garcia, author of "The Black Book Of Style." Her advice is there is no set of rules when it comes to style. Must haves: the little black dress. You can never go wrong with it. Also on the list is a trench coat, a white button down shirt, perfect pair of jeans, ballet flats and a beautiful pair of pumps. Even I can't argue with those. Get the book for more style ideas. Sounds fairly down to earth and reasonable, unlike a lot of fashion advice you see on TV and magazines.

In today's installment of Today Throws A Martha Stewart Wedding Cody and Jessica learned to dance for that very special first song at the reception. They chose "Into The Mystic" by Van Morrison as their song. Interesting choice. Al Roker claimed he never heard of it. Either he's lying or doesn't know anything about music. He's certainly old enough to know it. Anyway, there was a dance instructor giving them lessons while someone sang the song--which you couldn't hear over the dance instructor's commands. It was also Jessica's birthday, so they brought her a cake and sang happy birthday. How sweet.

Today's Kitchen had executive chef of Cooking Light Magazine on. He made some corn flake-crusted fish. Any type of fish will do. His motto--and that of the magazine's is eat smart, be fit and live well. For that and other light recipes, check out the magazine.

Here are a couple of noteworthy topics from the fourth hour from yesterday and today. I've combined them because there weren't many. Up first is the ongoing investigation into the McCanns who are still under suspicion in the death of their four year-old, Madeleine. The ladies--Hoda, Ann and Natalie discussed whether or not they thought they were guilty. The consensus seems to be that they are not. Otherwise why would they go to the Pope and David Beckham? Plus other celebrities got involved such as J.K. Rowling. They just aren't your typical child killers. Maybe they're right when they say they're being framed. I hope authorities are able to find who really did this soon.

Today's Family: Balancing Work And Motherhood. This was a noteworthy segment which featured some moms who've made it big on their own. They wanted to stay home with their kids and work at the same time (don't we all?) so they went into business for themselves. Got a million dollar idea? Their advice for moms who want to become stay at home mom/millionaires is that first you need to invest some money. They didn't really cover what to do if you don't have any at first. But you need some support (financially too, obviously) and find a good partner--one who has money would be a good pick. Also be bold and do something you're passionate about. This is the same advice I got in business school. Finding a partner who shares your passion is a hard part--at least for me. I'm still on my own, but I like it that way. Although my husband does help out by drawing some adorable bulldogs for some of my T-Shirts. By the way, we've got lots of new designs for fall. Check them out at http://cafepress.com/karmicbulldog.

That's a wrap. Probably for the week, since my son has an appointment with a neurodevelopment specialist tomorrow to see why he has low muscle tone and it will probably take a while.

Have a great weekend.

Wednesday on Today 8/29

Today's Style featured Back To School Fashion with Laurie Gelman of iVillage. I'm pretty sure she is the wife of Michael Gelman from Live with Regis and Kelly. Anyway, there was a kid fashion show which was too funny because a lot of these little kids tried to escape the runway. Today it was a run-a-way. She had to keep calling them back to show the audience what they were wearing. And speaking of back to school fashion, I've just added several new kids items to my store at http://cafepress.com/karmicbulldog. Come and check out my new designs on Tees and sweatshirts.

Today Throws A Martha Stewart Wedding featured Martha Stewart herself showing how to pick out flowers for that special day. My advice is to let someone else handle that. You're going to be too busy trying to fit into your dress and picking colors for the bride's maids to worry about whether the flower arrangements are the right height for the tables. The flower tip of the day: If you're on a budget, pick flowers that are in season.

Where Are They Today? This segment had Minnesota school bus hero Jeremy Hernandez, who saved 52 kids during the bridge collapse. So, where is he now? On The Today Show, not too shabby for a 20 year-old summer coordinator for a youth gym. Obviously, he cares about kids. He says his life is changed and I'm sure that's a good thing.

Abigail Jones and Marissa Miley wrote a revealing look at teens and sex in their new book "Restless Virgins," about a sex scandal at the upscale Milton Academy in Connecticut. Roni Cohen-Sandler is a psychotherapist who discussed the draw-backs of kids' casual attitudes toward sex, especially oral sex, which some kids as are treating as if it's nothing more than a handshake. This is quite scary. Boys have come to expect it from girls and girls feel pressured to perform. The moral of this story is that parents really need to talk to their kids about sex and get beyond the facts. We especially need to address the problem with boys since they seem to think it's cool and girls end up destroying their self-esteem. They must learn that sex is anything but casual and can be extremely dangerous--even deadly. You know, there are various diseases that nobody ever seems to talk about anymore like cervical cancer (which can be caused by an STD), AIDS, not to mention Herpes which isn't deadly but permanent. You may wish you were dead if you caught it--put fear into the kids. Sex should be feared at that age.

Another Vacation From Hell with Peter Greenberg showed a family who went from Philadelphia to Orlando by train because one of the kids had a fear of flying. The train was disabled with no air conditioning, lights and even the toilets had shut down. They flew back and the kid's fear miraculously disappeared. Moral of this story: Don't let your kids have the power to make you change your travel plans--unless they're sick as in yesterday's story. Only those parents didn't care and went anyway. But they paid a hefty price.

Kevin Nealon was a guest talking about an upcoming show he's hosting, World's Funniest Commercials. He actually went to school for advertising. I wonder how he ended up on SNL instead. Anyway, most of the commercials I saw in the clips didn't look that funny. Don't we see enough commercials as it is? Why do we need to see entire shows comprised of nothing but ads? Then they have commercials in between the commercials. When does it end? This post ends here.

And that's a wrap.