Bagels and NYC name-dropping tales of yore.

I'm chowing on a bagel this morning, which always makes me get a little wistful for my days in NYC. It also reminds me of all my funny mornings running the Green Room in a major network morning news show. As an intern, I arrived by 5am on Tuesdays and Thursdays to greet the day's celebrity guests and chit-chat with them over breakfast -- usually a tray of bagels and fruit. It wasn't fancy spread you'd imagine, but we always ate well.

Me, in front of my dorm, in 2011.
I lived here 1996-1999.
As I chomp on my bagel today, I'm reminded of how Eleanor Mondale (RIP) taught me to scoop out the inside of the bagel in order to "limit your carb intake" -- a tactic I only ever subscribed to on Tuesday and Thursday mornings in front of celebrity guests. I did appreciate the clear path that a scooped-out bagel created for a moat of cream cheese (I clearly missed Eleanor's point), but, in truth, I prefer a solid bagel.

Anyway ... a few more funny reminiscing moments of name-dropping fun:

That time Martha Stewart sent me all over midtown at 4:30am searching for a particular kind of grapefruit, which I thought was for a television segment, but it turns out was just for her breakfast. Also, I had the grapefruit sliced the wrong way (she wanted peeled pieces, not to scoop it out with a grapefruit spoon!), which angered her. After that -- no, actually after a few other incidents that maybe I'll spell out in my memoirs -- I chose not to do any more errands for her.

There was another time when Bill Cosby grabbed my bottom while I was bending over to refill his coffee cup. No further comments.

Once Jeff Goldblum and I were so caught up in a conversation about jazz piano (he's a very good player) that he almost missed his on-air cue (my fault).

While eating a bagel with Walter Cronkite, I was too nervous to tell him he had cream cheese all over his mustache. Full story here.

Another time I had to interview Colin Powell and try to get him to talk about a potential White House bid. I was barely 20.

Anyway, it seems like I've done some pretty exciting things in my life so far, so maybe I shouldn't be so disappointed that I haven't used my passport in 12 months. I do wish I could get a real bagel in Louisville though.

0 comments