The High Road: Today Show stoops to new low

Many years have passed since I started viewing the Today Show for a sample of the latest news.

Old habits, as they say, die hard, and I’m probably doomed to hang onto that one.  Enough of the pandering celebrity interviews, the glimpses into the on-camera personalities’ lives and Matt’s trips around the world.

I thought things were bad enough until Friday’s broadcast, which I had planned to ignore on this blog.  But two full days after watching a Barbara Corcoran segment, I cannot restrain myself from ranting about the shameless new low to which Today’s producers permitted themselves to stoop.

Out and About: How does your garden grow?

One of the houses with virtues that Barbara Corcoran extolled recently on the Today Show.

The one-bedroom, two-bath duplex I was checking out during a Sunday open house recently has two assets and many liabilities.

On the minus side are its entry almost directly into the small kitchen (in which an ancient dishwasher caught my eye), cramped living room, a spiral staircase so narrow that I had to hunch my shoulders, its bedroom (albeit one that fits the legal definition) in the basement and baths that I’d classify as ordinary.

On the plus side is its location in a Central Park block of the high 60s, a stone’s throw from Lincoln Center.  (To digress, when you see “steps from” in a listing, consider the Fair Housing Act, which bars discrimination against persons with disabilities.)

Also on the plus side — and the only conceivable explanation for the co-op’s inflated asking price of

What in the world is this woman thinking?

What I really wonder about the woman on the left is whether she is thinking at all.

That’s because she has a way of regularly disrupting how I ease into the day by tuning in to the Today Show while digesting the New York Times and drinking my morning coffee.

It’s a miracle that I don’t spill the coffee when the real estate segment featuring that woman, Barbara Corcoran, who I think of as “Bobblehead,” invades my living room.  (Pay attention if you get a chance, and you’ll see what I mean by “Bobblehead,” though you’ll probably never forgive me for pointing out the reason.)