Mourning In America

Wednesday morning was the beginning of the end of a very long chapter of my life. Katie Couric announced her plans to leave the Today show for the anchor seat on the CBS Evening News.

Yes, Katie is liberal. And no, I am not. I realize that. In fact, I can only recall voting for one Democrat in my life -- Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock (a fine Baylor alumnus). But other guys have learned to live with their spouse's political differences. Look at James Carville and Mary Matalin. They figured out how to make it work, right? Thanks for blazing that trail, James.

While Katie may have been waking up America for 15 years now (Wednesday was her anniversary), I was not really a fan in the early days. To be honest with you, I still missed Jane Pauley and was more than a little turned off by the Deborah Norville era. (You can probably see clips of her days as host in the "What Were They Thinking?" section of the Museum of Broadcast Communication.) On top of that, Katie had not quite developed her look just yet.

But as the years passed, we watched as Bryant left her, Matt joined her, and she had a ... um ... "procedure" on live TV. And, we wished we were related to her when she signed a 5-year contract for $60 million. (Do the math. That comes out to about $50,000 per weekday.) Along the way, Katie and the gang became a part of my morning ritual -- especially after I bought a TV that I could program to come on in the morning, functioning as one of many alarm clocks.

I've been to Rockefeller Plaza twice in hopes of seeing the Today show folks outside. The first time was by myself on New Year's Day 1995 (my friends slept in). I made it on TV, but Katie and Bryant had the day off. Then, in 2003, I coerced some friends to not only drag themselves down to the Plaza early in the morning, but to also wear t-shirts from my surprise birthday party ("SWM 2008 -- Good Times! Good Times!"). We were able to see Katie in person, and Al Roker pointed to our shirts and said, "Good times! Good times!" But the hopes of meeting Katie were shattered.

So, now I have a little less than two months left before Katie leaves me -- um, I mean leaves us, her millions of fans. I'm not sure I can keep this up once she jumps to CBS. Not only am I rarely home at 5:30 pm, but 30 minutes of Katie being un-perky would just be too much to endure.

Like watching a butterfly without her wings.