Brian - The bottom line regarding natural herbs and antioxidants is that Doctors don’t want their patients (or future patients) to bother with such things that are “from the earth”, which are much better for us , is because it will take away from their practice and won’t benefit their bank accounts.

They want us to take these newfangled drugs that are new to the market that have so many side effects they probably know you’ll be back in their office to treat the medical problems you’ll probably get from these side effects.

If you wish to view tonight's lunar eclipse but do not have a clear sky, you may watch live, streaming video on one of several, on-line sites such as http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/, http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/, and NASA's web site, http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/index.html. You may read more about this unique eclipse at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/111597159.html, including observing times across the United States.

Good Evening Mr.Williams, A fine broadcast this evening as always! Seeing the lunar eclipse will be great if one can be awake during the time of its occurrence. Truly an exciting event and on the Winter Solstice too.

Now on to the broadcast. First of all the report about the extreme weather happening across the nation especially in the West where in California they have received so much rainfall. Seeing all the sandbags and walls built up by residents shows how everyone is trying so hard to keep their homes out of harms way of mudslides. Then in the Pacific Northwest getting much snowfall and ice causing many accidents one really hopes things get better. Forecasts seem to say differently though.

The report by Stephanie Gosk from Heathrow Airport told of a terrible situaton of so many passengers stranded at the airport not knowing when their flight would leave. The lines at the Paris train stations looked horrible with trains either delayed or cancelled. The airports mentioned do need better equipment to deal with winter weather. In the meantime people wait longer and get more frustrated. I hope Stephanie's flight takes off on time on Thursday! Along with many other people!

The event of the lunar eclipse happening early morning tomorrow is going to be quite a site to see. Hearing about what one can learn concerning the earth's atmosphere during the eclipse was interesting.

The "Making A Difference" segment by Kristan Welker about the "Voices of Destiny" led by the Pastor of the church in Compton was inspirational. Those young people sounded great and it is awesome they won the gospel competition. They will all have bright futures! The Pastor is doing a wonderful thing for those young people!

Thank You for the broadcast Mr.Williams. Peace to You and to All!

Be Well Everyone!

Stay Extra,Extra Safe and Well Richard!

Take Extra Good Care Richard and Crew!

Lisa

Good evening, Brian! This is a random one, but why does it still tell me below "as a new user..."? I am most definitely NOT a new user, so I don't know what that's still there for! Anyway, because I have to be at work by 8:30am tomorrow morning (retail during the holidays, woo hoo!) I will sadly be missing tonight's solstice...I wish I didn't have to work 9 1/2 hours tomorrow! I might actually go to sleep now, wake up when Fallon ends and just grab a Red Bull at some point tomorrow afternoon. I might be crazy enough to pull this off! It's not like I'll ever get the opportunity to see this again, so I might as well give it my all! I hope viewers get some good shots of it like they did during the last meteor shower.

As for the weather across the globe, I cannot imagine what Europe is going through right now! Via Skype, I've been talking to my boyfriend who lives in Norway about the incredible airport jams in the UK, and I just feel so awful for those people. I hope the weather passes soon for them and that the snow storms calm down for good afterwards, especially since he'll be flying over the giant pond this Friday! As someone who has still yet to fly (until a week and a half from today!) I can't imagine what the people at Heathrow are going through, and I'd be more than nervous flying out in the kind of weather they're experiencing! I wish them all the luck!

Thank you for the broadcast tonight, Brian. And because I just finally bought Lissie's new album "Catching A Tiger" (yes, the physical CD, do you believe it!?) and wouldn't have heard of her when I did if you hadn't told me, I thank you for passing the word along! I'm still crazy about the three you told me about, but I also love "Stranger" and it's very nostalgic 1960s sound! Also, I can't stop singing "Oh Mississippi". Lissie has such a raw, wonderful voice, and doesn't need a microphone or anything to sound amazing. Not sure if you've seen it, but here's a prime example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ouML75DMFM I'm crazy about that song, and so wish I could sing like that. Any more music we should know about!? What do you like listening to during the holidays specifically? I personally have a strong weakness (hah) for the classics, specifically Sinatra... "The Christmas Song" by the Raveonettes is one of the newer ones I'm crazy about as well. I recommend the broadcast close with that one again, like it did during one of last year's broadcasts. Wow, I'm a rambler!

Take care,

-Cary

Dear Brian Williams and NBC News:

I don't watch any other broadcast news source but yours. Over the years I have become disgusted and disenchanted with network and cable news sources that sensationalize, dramatize and trivialize. I keep watching you because- even though I realize that you only have 30 minutes a night and you cannot possible devote the kind of time to each story that it deserves, you do try to get it right. I trust your integrity as a news source- which is something that I take extremely seriously. But- as I'm watching tonights west coast broadcast all I can think is- shame on you! You spent a whole segment talking about how it's snowing outside. . . in December . . . that's shocking! Meanwhile- you spent about 30 seconds talking about how the Senate is stalling voting for a bill to help 9/11 first responders. In this "holiday" season - don't you think that is a more pressing issue?! Don't you think taking care of the people who risked their lives - who ran into the fire- don't you think they deserve more than 30 seconds on your broadcast?? I do. And I'm very disappointed in you! And now you're talking about Tracy Morgan and his kidney transplant??!!! grrrr- I'm turning off your broadcast now! You got it wrong! You got it so wrong!

Brian,

The young boy in one shot with a tear running down his eye should be on the cover of "Time"

magazine. A picture is worth a thousand words. And this would one would capture the despair

of the people caught up in this major snowstorm.

Phyllis

hola, brian, i googled michael foale, the british/american astronaut, the other day, since he's always doing interesting things and found his talk on 4/15 to the ISS panel where he brought up something called a VASIMIR engine, a magnetoplasma engine that could potentially deliver astronauts to mars in 4-6 weeks! there's several sites that describe the technology that i'll read when i get back from portland. that sure would jump-start our stagnant space program:-)

happy holidays to you and lester and all of the nightly news crew and staff! i'm finally all packed for my trip, such a pain with my therapeutic baths, all of my vits and herbal supplements and trying to pack the right layers to stay warm! but i am totally looking forward to my visit!

blessings, anna martina

Dear Brian,

It is snowing here so the lunar eclipse will not be seen by me :( The Vikings lost :( Wow, that looked like a cold game. It is late and I still haven't watched the news yet....must do that now :)

Melissa

Here's what you missed if you didn't see Nightly News this weekend:

Saturday--During a story about the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", a Nightly News graphic misspelled Sen. Lindsey Graham's first name as "Lindsay". Funny thing--Nightly News never misspells Lindsay Lohan's first name.
* Footage of Barack Obama from the 2008 presidential campaign was accompanied by a Bruce Springsteen song. Springsteen is shoehorned into several Nightly News stories each week because Brian Williams likes him.
* A story about Amelia Earhart included 20 seconds of footage from last year's "Amelia" movie (starring Hilary Swank). Although there is certainly no shortage of film of the actual Amelia Earhart, the producers included the movie footage because Nightly News is trying to be more of an entertainment show than a news show.
* In yet another story about Prince William and Kate Middleton, Lester Holt described in detail what Kate was wearing on a night out--her dress ("a black and white dress with a fancy neckline"), jacket, shoes ("black pumps")--even her clutch. They should have attached a "breaking news" tag to that story. Meanwhile, Lester said nothing about what William was wearing. That is extremely sexist.

Monday--Brian spent all of 20 seconds reporting on the latest terrorist plot in Great Britain. That's the same amount of time he spent reporting on Tracy Morgan's kidney transplant. Of course, reporting on Tracy Morgan allowed Brian to plug SNL and "30 Rock" (twice). Brian then spent 50 seconds on tonight's Vikings-Bears game. Brian frequently reports on football stories, because any football story helps to promote NBC's Sunday Night Football coverage.
* Yet again Robert Bazell helped to promote a Bayer product. On Dec. 6, Bazell did a story about the health benefits of aspirin. But the only name brand aspirin Bazell included in the story was Bayer. On June 8, he did a story about how Aleve (a Bayer product) can reduce the risk of heart attacks. And tonight, he did a story debunking the herbal supplement Echinacea as a cure for the common cold. Six minutes after that story, we saw a commercial for Alka-Seltzer Plus cold medicine--manufactured by Bayer. Clearly, the point of Bazell's story was to discourage people from using Echinacea so they would buy Alka-Seltzer Plus. Of course, Bayer isn't the only product Bazell promotes in his "news stories". In the past, he has done stories favorable to Cheerios and Avodart (from GlaxoSmithKline)--heavy Nightly News sponsors. And Bazell is equally happy to discredit a drug to help a Nightly News sponsor (as he did with Echinacea). On Sept. 15, he trashed the diet drug Meridia in a "Lifeline" story sponsored by Toviaz (a Pfizer product). The purpose of this story was to benefit Pfizer at the expense of Meridia. And by the way, it was completely inappropriate of Nightly News to allow Pfizer to sponsor a story about the pharmaceutical industry--an industry in which they are a major player.

Brian: Missed the eclipse, because I forgot about it. The photo's that were displayed on the web were magnificent! Your blog mentioned peyote and muder connected to the eclipse. There can only be a full moon during a eclipse. They say it causes some people to lose it, but science says that's very thin. Because the full moon became dark, maybe the murder rate decreased, but more people were on peyote, because the eclipse had a psychodelic effect on them, thus enabling those who wanted to kill someone to refrain due to their euphoric state of mind. Maybe, that too is thin, but who knows.

It looks like the musical, Spiderman is having some technical difficulties. The other night someone else fell from above, just 7 minutes shy of the end of the play. Perhaps, the real spiderman should fill in. Shame on anyone who tries to imitate the real thing. I'll catch you on tonight's broadcast.

it's raining not men out here in Southern California good sleeping weather but no snow.

Off topic today I got so many people supporting the reporting on NBC and even many read the blog even if they don't use the computer. Yes we made it big time and to the NBC Staff and you to Brian along with the regular Bloggers we have made it to some many viewers. Yes people are llistening, reading and even talking out here about Nightly News and the Nightly News Family. Makes me proud to be among such great honest people who are speaking out and learning from each other.

I'm still in shock over the Giants lost and it will take a few more days to get back to normal, but always love my Giants and Eli. Michael Vick and his team did good but we'll be ready next time.

Take care all