Taking a personal day today and instead of being productive, I turned on the TV. No surprise there, I’m sure. It’s always a bit of a shock to see what comes up when you first turn on the TV in morning. Was I really watching this channel last night? What the hell is this? Anyway, I immediately switched to The Today Show. I used to watch it every morning before work. My era was the last Katie Couric years, all through Meredith Viera’s time, ending with Ann Curry’s short stint. I stopped after that. Nothing against Savannah Guthrie but a lot against Matt Lauer. LAAAAAUUUUEEEER! Not that I always believe gossip but I did want to identify who to blame for Curry’s firing. Sure, Curry often stumbled on her words when delivering the news but that made her real, man. I think Lauer was jealous because she was also doing real journalism at night on Dateline. For a time, she was the Hardest Working Woman In News. And Lauer was losing his hair.

So I turned over during one of Today’s Summer Concert Series performances. I imagine the Today producers are so thankful when summer comes around and they can eat up several segments with a concert. It must be difficult coming up with material for four hours of time. Or three hours of time since I refuse to watch the Kathie Lee and Hoda hour. It may be one minute of Kathie Lee  and Hoda introducing 59 minutes of  Michael Fassbender making desserts and I would never know. I mean, NEVER.  I’ve been known to dive for the remote when the intro comes on, saying, “no. no. no.” I have no real reason for this except I’m just not a Kathie Lee fan. She was OK on Name That Tune when I was five. It was the Carnival Cruise commercials that started it. And then Regis & Kathie Lee. She just rubs me the wrong way. But what keeps me from extreme-hating her is the fact that I know she would give less of a shit if she knew I didn’t like her. And that makes me not hate her.

Back to the Summer Concert Series. Today’s artist is Aloe Blacc. I have no idea who this man is. I don’t even know if not knowing who he is is a completely-out-of-touch thing. Or if it is normal to not know him. Anyway, he can sing and was only partially obscured by the Toyota Summer Concert Series logo. This made me a little sad. Back in my Today day, the concert series was sponsored by the Incredible Edible Egg. I miss that little animated egg dude, dancing in the corner with his shades on. Get off my lawn, Toyota logo!

Damn. Willard Scott is still doing the Smucker’s birthday segment. I guess he is holding out until he can wish himself a Happy 100^th Birthday.

So the third hour (or last hour to me), has been rebranded as Today’s Take. OK. It’s a The View type set up where Al Roker, Natalie Morales (who was out today), Willie Geist and Tamron Hall sit around the table and talk topics. Topics as diverse as “Ebola patient coming to the US” followed by “Julia Roberts getting hit in the face with an inflatable ball on Jimmy Fallon”. Hashtag OrangeRoom. (Yeah, there’s an official hashtag for Today’s Take discussions, I guess. You know, for the kids with their social and their media.) They then talked about a woman who could write with both hands and both feet at the same time. So you know one of them is going to try it. Well, Tamron reveals she refused so a poor production person had to come out and demonstrate. Talk then turns to pedicures and how the poor woman found out about ten minutes before that a camera would be up close on her toes. Tamron then reveals that the real reason she didn’t want to do it is because of all the foot fetishists that could screenshot her feet and post it on the internet. To which the production person said thanks a lot. Then Al gets up to do the weather. Willie then interrupts him to throw an inflatable ball at his face. This upped my respect for the production crew. While one was writing with her toes and getting her feet in some questionable chat rooms, another was probably ordered to root through a prop room to find a beach ball and run it back to the stage. And points to Willie for accepting the ball and rolling with it. That pun was intended.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the goofiness level. The Today Show has always been goofy. That’s its appeal. I mean, Al Roker and Matt Lauer were in Sharknado 2: The Second One this week.  Not just as a cameo. They had a bigger part and more lines than Tara Reid. Perhaps because Al and Matt can string together a sentence.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Sharknado 2. Not to give props to the movie itself but rather to whoever cast it. Really just kudos for getting Robert Hays as the airline pilot and Judd Hirsch as the taxi driver. I commend them. Also props to all the plastic surgeons that operated on a lot of the cast. Your work was well showcased.

The Today Show is on for the entire morning on NBC…I think every day. It should be called Every Day.