Tag: Today

Stick a Fork In Her. She’s Done.

On By In Write FieldIn Random Stuff1 Comment

Patricia KrentcilYesterday was another you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up morning for me, courtesy of The Today Show.  A New Jersey mom is accused of causing sunburn to her five-year-old daughter by placing her in a tanning bed.  Not even a spray-tan booth, à la Snookie.  We’re talking about an old-school tanning bed complete with retina-shielding goggles to prevent, you know, blindness.  One of those contraptions that has been linked to premature aging and Melanoma.

Impossible, you say?  What kind woman would inflict such a thing on a young child?  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… Patricia Krentcil. 

I’m traveling for work this week, so at first I thought there was something wrong with my hotel TV.  Was the color off?  Krentcil is blonde, but has leathery skin the color of an old baseball glove.  She could easily be mistaken for Al Jolson in blackface.

Maybe she is telling the truth, and her daughter merely accompanied her to the tanning salon, but waited outside while Mom cooked herself to a crisp.  (Krentcil claims a teacher heard the little girl talking about “going to get a tan with mommy” and misunderstood.)

Perhaps.  Someone may be addicted to tanning, but that doesn’t mean she would force her five-year-old kid to do it.  The funny thing was that everyone on Today kept a perfectly straight face throughout the segment, and no one even pointed out that Patricia Krentcil is (to quote the Associated Press ) “deeply tanned”.  Apparently seeking to dispel any hint of bias, the story was presented as sort of a he said/she said situation.  As if, due to the lack of circumstantial evidence, we might NEVER know what happened.   

Never fear, on Day Two of Pigmentgate, Today changed course and invited medical experts — who have never met Krentcil — to speak about the dangers of her ‘tanorexia’.

Speaking of blackface (sort of), Ashton Kutcher is in hot water for his appearance in a new Popchips commercial in which he impersonates a Bollywood producer, wearing brownface and using a strong Indian accent.  Twitter erupted with charges of racism, and the ad was swiftly pulled. 

I am completely baffled.  This causes outrage, but not Metro PCS commercials that mock Indians using every unflattering stereotype in the book?  Those cringe-worthy ads have been going on since 2010!  Kutcher’s Popchips performance is not exactly enlightened but Metro PCS commercials are insulting and completely unfunny, and they make me change the channel.

Ashton Kutcher

Buck Up, Buttercup!

On By In Write FieldIn Baseball, Random Stuff2 Comments

Cameron ShoresI have a complicated relationship with The Today Show.  Many things about it drive me nuts.  For starters, Ann Curry may be a very sweet person –  she can ask an evasive political candidate tough questions in such a non-confrontational way, he doesn’t know what hit him – but her hushed tones in human interest segments can be like nails on a chalkboard… especially when she sympathetically pats guests on the arm for emphasis.

Some Today segments are so devoid of social or educational value, I suspect that high school interns may have temporarily hijacked the studio. A recurring favorite:  Those crazy Duggars are pregnant again! Seriously?  I mean the show is called “19 Kids & Counting!”   When your teaser before a commercial is “The Duggars are here with a BIG announcement”, you don’t exactly need to issue a spoiler alert.

This morning, however, a warm-and-fuzzy Today story helped restore my faith in humanity.

At a recent Texas Rangers game, a foul ball was tossed into the stands and retrieved by a young couple, Shannon Moore and Sean Leonard.  Next to them sat three-year-old Cameron Shores and his parents.  Cameron already loves baseball so much, he sleeps with his glove every night, and he was NOT HAPPY for Shannon and Sean.  He wanted that baseball.  So Cameron threw a hissy fit.  Meanwhile the giddy couple beside him was oblivious, taking iPhone photos of themselves proudly holding up the ball.

Michael Kay, a Yankees announcer, aligned himself with Team Cameron right out of the gate.  “Oh my God. They can’t give it to the kid? That’s awful!  They’re rubbing it in the kid’s face.”  If you watch the video, though, you can clearly see that Shannon and Sean didn’t have a clue.

Now we reach the part of the story that impressed me so much:  Cameron is a lucky boy.  He has thoughtful, level-headed parents.  When he lost his marbles, his parents didn’t panic.  Instead, they immediately shifted him away from Shannon and Sean so that he didn’t spoil their fun, or guilt them into giving him their prize.

As they soothed their son, they explained that the game wasn’t over, and he might catch another ball later. “I never once thought that they should have given him the ball,” said Cameron’s mom Crystal. “We’re trying to teach him he doesn’t get everything every time.”

In fact, a few minutes after the TV cameras lost interest, Shannon and Sean realized why Cameron was crying and offered him the ball – and his parents politely turned them down.

I ask you, how cool are Cameron’s mom and dad?!?!  I wish more parents behaved this way.  Rather than assuming that the rest of us are put on this earth to revolve around their offspring, they actually thought FIRST about how his tantrum might affect OTHERS!  Unbelievable!

Later in the game, after Cameron had stopped crying, the Rangers organization sent out a ball for him.  Of course he was thrilled, but hopefully he also learned the lesson his parents were trying to teach; You may not get what you want, whenever you want it…. but patience is often rewarded.

On a slightly related note, my experience at the ballpark has been it’s not just the announcers who deride adult fans who hang on to foul balls – it’s the people sitting around them.  “Give it to a kid,” they shout.

Question:  Should grownups be expected to give up foul balls to youngsters sitting in their vicinity, even if they don’t know them?  (Being a fraidy cat, I think this will always be a hypothetical question for me.  I’m more likely to be vilified for ducking behind a little kid to escape being beaned by a pop up, than to catch one.)  That said, remember this young Giants fan?  If I caught that ball, Mr. Pouty wouldn’t have a prayer…