Today Show

We aren't "have-the-TV-on-constantly" people. And for years I read the morning paper religiously. I enjoyed the ritual of retrieving it from the driveway and scanning the pages while drinking a cup of coffee each day.

So I never tuned into the Today Show in the US. But I recently discovered it's aired on DirecTV only five hours after the live broadcasts in the States. This may not seem very timely in our current world of instant communication. When you consider I've watched episodes of Dinner Impossible from five years ago that's pretty darned speedy for around these parts.

Since the show airs at 1 PM I've found it's an entertaining diversion during lunch. Two big pluses are HD and English. The one downside is l-o-n-g commercial breaks which (although I haven't formally timed them) seem to last up to ten minutes. We've discovered this is actually better than the one or two minute intervals we're used to that barely allow time to go to the bathroom. We can refresh our beverages, throw a load of clothes in the washer, and check email before the next segment starts.

Not only do we get to keep up with current news and various entertainment fluff, sometimes the information dispensed unexpectedly comes in handy.

I was recently chatting with our daughter, who lives in Hoboken right across from Manhattan, on Skype. She told me me that she had outdoor plans that afternoon but was worried about rain. I replied, "Oh, don't worry about it. Roker said that front is going to go through the upstate area. You'll be fine."

We both laughed at how in Ecuador I knew more about her current weather than she did.

Well, looks like the commercials are over. Thanks, Al. Keep up the good work.