I’m rethinking my promise to bring you some squirrel recipes this morning. It now strikes me as a little … squirrelly. No, that’s not the right word, more like … gross. Not because it’s squirrel, mind you, but because hearing in detail how any meat is prepared can be a little t.m.i. It’s like the sage advice never to watch sausage being made. But I made a promise, so here are a couple: (put down your breakfast)

Keep Reading …

It’s 7:15am (Tue) and I’m getting ready to head outside our studio in midtown Manhattan to do the riskiest thing one can do in live television — ask unsuspecting commuters if they’ll talk to you.

You never know if they’ll talk or just give you the one-fingered New York salute. And if they do talk to you, it’s even riskier! They could be crazy, which makes for good TV, or annoyed, which makes for dull tv, or most likely in a rush and simply blow off the interview.

My question to them: can they name the Ten Commandments?

A recent survey finds that only 14 percent of Americans know them — but a whopping (get it?) 25 percent can name the ingredients in a Big Mac and the names of the kids in the Brady Bunch. We’ll see if our results differ. Gotta run outside, I’ll tell you the results later….

Did you hear us talking about the Maxim article that names Sarah Jessica Parker the most “unsexy” woman in America? Brian and Steve were chiding me because they know what a huge fan I was of her show “Sex and the City.” Come on, Maxim, how can you consider a woman with perfect biceps and rock-hard abs (after having a baby, thank you very much) “unsexy.” Can’t you do better than that? Our viewers can. They have some strong opinions of who’s sexy and who’s not. Here are some of the scores of emails we got on the topic:

---

Sorry, Alyson, but the guys are right. Sarah J Parker is underweight and her face gaunt. Although admittedly she’s in great shape, men like women with curves. Good for the mag to vote against walking sticks for once!
– Billyjack Fairness (Midland, Texas)

---

Hillary Clinton
Nancy Pelosi
Barbara Boxer
Diane Finstein
Rosey O Donnell
–Anonymous

---

Keep Reading …

Wasn’t that a scary story that Steve told about his childhood home in Kansas being haunted? We’re telling ghost stories on and off the air this morning. It started when we read a new Associated Press survey showing that 34% of all Americans believe in ghosts. That got us talking about our own experiences and Steve asked viewers whether they’d ever had any spooky sightings.

Our email went into overdrive — within minutes we got hundreds and hundreds of messages. Then our email froze ….(cue the spooky music…)

Our tech guys are trying to fix it now. Maybe that meddlesome greenroom ghost jamming the transmission. I will excerpt some of the best emails here!

---

I haven’t told this story to very many people, because it is hard to believe, but very true. My favorite aunt, Aunt Lona, and I were very close. She was my mother’s sister, and the best person in the world. Shortly after she died, my young daughter and I moved in with my mother. I began to have terrible nightmares — to the point that I would wake up screaming, crying, and sweating.One night my nightmare consisted of evil shadows flying around my room. I could feel the evil. It seemed so real. This time when I woke up crying, there was a hand-crocheted cross about five inches long, and two inches wide, lying across my legs on the undisturbed blankets. My mother has never crocheted, but my aunt did all the time and tried to teach me.I truly believe that this cross was from my aunt. I didn’t have any more nightmare’s after that time either. I swear, this is all true.–Karla

---

Keep Reading …

My informal poll suggests that you guys do want to hear about the SoCal fires, but you’d like us to incorporate other news from around the country into the show as well. And that’s what we’re doing this morning, sprinkling in politics, the space shuttle, international news and money tips.

It’s a delicate balance because the fires are still raging and firefighters are still out there risking their lives. Do any of you live in Cali?

---

(There has been an overwhelming amount of people who are looking for my meatball recipe — if you scroll down this page, you will find it in my Frankie Valli entry. Or, click here!)

Hey Guys,

I responded to your many meatball queries and memories. Thank you! Should we start a cooking club? Or better, an eating club?

It’s hard to blog on big breaking news days. I’m sort of on perma-standby.

The producers tend to throw out the show’s rundown and just roll with the developments. That means that my news updates float (news lingo for not having any set time). That happened at the start of this morning’s show.

I stood waiting in the wings to do my 7am (eastern) news break, but the live reports from the SoCal fires were too compelling to cut away from. So they killed my hit (as we say when a segment gets squeezed out by more pressing news). A few minutes ago, the producers summoned me into the studio for the bottom-of-the-hour update, though I admit it feels a little strange to be reporting on other news when the situation in California is dire and urgent.

How do you turn away from a live shot showing flames threatening a community? What do you think? Do you want to hear other news this morning or should we concentrate on the fires?

There’s nothing quite as mouth-watering than when two Italians start swapping their grandmothers’ recipes. Frankie Valli and I just bonded over our families’ homemade meatballs. Frankie’s so right when he says the secret is not the meat but rather the breadcrumbs.

Soak them first in milk and make sure it’s warm. Then add those breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese to a pound of beef, plus one egg, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and a bit of garlic. Then mix it up with your hands (oh, and take off your rings first — as my father once learned in a hilarious stuffed pepper incident). Brown the meatball well in olive oil, then toss it into the simmering tomato sauce (gravy, for all you paisans out there). Serve with a chunk of crusty bread and a simple salad tossed in olive oil and wine vinegar. Is it lunch time yet?

Believe me, I tried. Oh, how I tried to respond to all your great comments last week. And this morning I’m relieved to report that it’s not me; there really is a technical glitch preventing me from writing back!! Phew. The Computer Help desk is working on it. Or so I’m told…

The show this morning has been more intense than we anticipated. We knew we’d be getting updates throughout the morning on the SoCal fires but we didn’t know just how close our reporter Adam Housley would be to the danger. He’d just finished telling us that he could feel the heat uncomfortably on his face when he suddenly had to high-tail it out of there and get to a safe place. I’ll email him right now to make sure he and they crew are OK. And you can always check out his blog for a glimpse into all the action.

And that nut didn’t even tell us! So about half an hour ago when we all figured it out (please, it’s only been about 9 years of working with Steve…how can Brian be expected to remember?) so our producers scrambled around and raced out to buy some donuts and candles, our version of a birthday cake. And they rang up Mrs. Doocy, aka Mrs. Happy, for an on-air greeting.

Now we’ve got to run outside and play with some adorable puppies. If you’re looking for one, we’ll give you the number to adopt.

Oh and guess what?? It wasn’t just my complete idiocy that prevented me from being able to respond to your comments on this blog — it was a technical glitch!! Phew. Our “computer people” says that’s “fixed” now. I’ll give it a shot right after the show