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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Ann Curry’s Oops!


At left: Ann Curry and Matt Lauer have kept NBC's "Today" rolling, despite Katie Couric's departure. 
 (The Spokesman-Review)
At left: Ann Curry and Matt Lauer have kept NBC's "Today" rolling, despite Katie Couric's departure. (The Spokesman-Review)

Ann Curry and Matt Lauer

n her role as the co-host of "The Today Show" on NBC, Ann Curry is renowned for her grace and gravitas, reporting stoically on all sorts of calamities from far-flung places like the Congo, Iraq, and Darfur — in between the lighthearted palling around she often does on set with Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker.

Curry, in short, is a respected television journalist by just about any standard — which is why the gaffe she committed over the weekend while delivering the commencement address at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., is all the more shocking.

After taking the stage to launch into the school's 175th commencement address, she sought to drive home the inspirational content of her speech by ticking off the names of a few of the school's more illustrious alums. Among the entries on the Curry honor roll: "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl, evangelist Billy Graham, slasher-film director Wes Craven, and United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer. There was just one problem: Apart from Stahl, everyone on that list actually graduated from another Wheaton College, the Christian liberal-arts college in Wheaton, Illinois. More.

Feel free to share your own embarrassing moments here. It might make Ann feel better, because I'm sure she's a devoted Huck's online reader.



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.