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American Morning

New Study Provides Evidence That Folic Acid is a Dietary Must; '90-Second Pop'

Aired January 24, 2005 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING, the price on Osama bin Laden's head is expected to get higher by as much as $25 million. The question is, of course, why now? And will the change make any difference? We'll talk about with a Congressman who is the driving force behind the decision.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, good thing the storm hit over the weekend. Didn't have to deal with getting work, but today's a different story, got us a two-day advantage, huh, snow piled high across the Northeast again today. Intense storm over the weekend. Some situations very dangerous throughout the region.

Chad is out there in the thick of it. He's across the river in New Jersey, and he'll let us know how things are going so far today. so we'll check in with Chad.

O'BRIEN: Before that, though, let's get another check of the headlines with Carol Costello.

Good morning again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

You notice how Chad was dressed? He's dressed like a 10-year-old -- he can't move, he's got so many layers on.

Good morning to you. Good morning all of you.

Now in the news, Iraqi forces say they've captured a top al Qaeda figure linked to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Officials say the man has claimed responsibility for 32 car-bomb attacks since March of 2003. And there was another bombing in Baghdad today. Iraqi police say about a dozen people are injured. The blast took place near the headquarters of Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Here in the United States, finally, Boston's Logan Airport now back open after a powerful winter storm. Parts of Massachusetts are digging out after getting hit with two to three feet of snow. We'll have more on how the rest of the northeast is coping in just a moment.

And authorities in Florida say a convicted sex offender is now facing federal kidnapping charges under the abduction of an 11-year- old boy. Frederick Frest (ph) man was arrested yesterday in northern Georgia. Authorities excuse him of kidnapping his roommate's son last Tuesday from the boy's school in north central, Florida. The child is said to be safe and has since been reunited with his family. Asa Hutchinson, an undersecretary at the Homeland Security Department, is apparently not happy he was passed over for the top job. CNN now confirming Hutchinson will announce today he is planning to resign effective March 1st. That's when nominee Michael Chernoff is expected to take over for Tom Ridge as homeland security secretary. Of course he has to be confirmed by Congress first.

HEMMER: Thank you, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: It is one of the more essential B vitamins. Now a new study provides further evidence that folic acid is a dietary must. You can read all about it in this week's "Time" magazine. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from CNN Center with details on that.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning to you.

I know folic acid, obviously, supposed to take if you're pregnant or if you're thinking about getting pregnant. But there are benefits outside of that?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are benefits outside of that, and some of these are becoming increasingly well documented. It's nothing new that folic acid can be good for you, and there are few downsides to it, but a new study now coming out, looking specifically at women aged 27 to 44, and finding a reduced risks of hypertension, or high blood pressure, not just a little bit, but quite a bit, by 46 percent. It reduced the risk of high-blood pressure, hypertension, later on in life.

Again, Soledad, as you mentioned, millions of women already take folic acid to try and prevent birth defects, specifically neural tube defects, spinal cord defects, and it's very good at that. But there has been some evidence for some time that folic acid may also be good for reducing the risk of breast cancer and stroke. Most of the women in this study took between 250 and 300 micrograms of folic acid a day. For pregnant women, it's worth pointing out, the recommendation is to take 400 micrograms. That's about the amount found in one single daily vitamin.

Now, what they found is the women who took the most in this particular study, about a thousand micrograms a day, had the best results in terms of lowering the risk of hypertension, about a thousand micrograms a day -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You have to take it in a pill form, Sanjay, like if you do if you're pregnant, or you're thinking about getting pregnant, or are there foods that are high in folic acid that will get you to that magic number of 400 or 1,000?

GUPTA: You know, it's sort of interesting about this, because you and I talk about where's the best place to get your vitamins quite a bit. And I'll almost always say that it's going to be particular foods, fruits, for example, with vegetables, with their skins still on them. There are foods like that that as well, that do have high concentrations of folic, citrus fruits, tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, beans.

What's sort of interesting though about folic acid and folate in general, is that the foods that are fortified with folic acid, like you're cereals, like your whole grains, tend to be the best; people get the best results when they eat those foods fortified with folic acid. Of course you can get it in the vitamin as well, which appears to be very effective -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, good new. Thanks, Sanjay, appreciate it -- Bill.

GUPTA: Thank you.

HEMMER: People in San Francisco may want to cut back on their groceries when they hear what the city has planned. Let's hear what's happening there.

O'BRIEN: That sounds a little ominous.

Also, NBC disappointed by "Joey's" ratings, but they still have a reason for keeping him. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Back to Jack, and a great Question of the Day.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill.

Favorite Johnny Carson memories. He was funny. He was a great comedian, but the essence of the man behind the laughs is perhaps best captured in these last two e-mails. Judy in Wilmington, North Carolina writes this, "My favorite memory: a little girl who got to be principal of her school for a day was scheduled to be a guest on 'The Tonight Show.' When it came time for her to appear, she was afraid, she was crying and clutching her mother. Johnny went on with the rest of her show, but at the end, he brought her out, saying that he didn't want her to go home thinking that she had failed. With her mother beside her and Johnny holding her hand, she got through the interview. You could tell how much he cared about this girl and how much he wanted her to succeed. It says a lot about him. He was arguably the most powerful man in show business, and that night his only concern was for the feelings of a little girl no one had ever heard of."

And this one, Diane writes from St. Catherine's (ph) in Ontario, "My favorite memory, when he showed his own home video which he had taken of a hummingbird nest in his backyard. And at the end, when the final babies had left the nest, he became emotional, and said, and now they're gone. Sadly, so he is." Thanks for all of your letters.

HEMMER: Really good stuff, too. We've been remembering him throughout the morning, and as we continue through the morning here, here's Soledad with more on the life of Johnny Carson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Andy Borowitz joins us from BorowitzReport.com. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.

Favorite memory. Andy, why don't you start us off?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Well, I mean, there are so many great ones. I mean, I think that we've been seeing this clip over and over again of Johnny jumping into Ed McMahon's arms, you know, out of terror, which was a great one.

But I think just day to day what I loved about Johnny was the way he would recover when he was bombing, when his monologue was doing badly, and he would acknowledge it and he would do a soft shoe. And I think every comedian in the country wishes they had that kind of grace when they're in a similar predicament, which we all are from time to time.

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: I have to say, for some reason I remember this one, where the guy from the zoo would come on and bring all of the animals. And there was this monkey that looked exactly like him. You know, and then they both just sort of looked at the camera together. And, I mean, how hard is it to be with animals and be funny?

BOROWITZ: Yes.

BERNARD: I mean, it's just unbelievable.

BOROWITZ: And now everybody is doing it.

BERNARD: And now -- right.

BOROWITZ: That's the best.

O'BRIEN: Or trying.

BOROWITZ: Right.

BERNARD: I think the thing about it was the way he retired, don't you? I mean, he left on top, and he just -- he didn't start turning into, like, a KFC, Burger King pitchman or something, which he easily could have done.

TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the thing that I always loved -- the thing that I will always remember is last week, he just came out with a news story that Carson's feeding jokes to Letterman. So it's like his final public statement, Dave was better. Like, right at the end, like, I like Letterman. Like, just that's his final going-out moment.

O'BRIEN: Apparently, they said that it gave him a huge kick to see his jokes on the air, to see Letterman do his jokes.

BERNARD: And Letterman wouldn't tell anybody which ones they were. So it was just sort of like this private communication. O'BRIEN: Right.

TOURE: Jay is winning most of the Nielsen families, but the king of late night is preferring Dave.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about a totally different topic, which is "Joey," which kind of didn't do so well. I mean, you're shaking your head in disbelief.

TOURE: It's terrible.

O'BRIEN: But maybe they have got something there to work with. I mean, they obvious don't want to give up the franchise, because they've re-signed it for another year. What's going on there?

TOURE: NBC has nothing to work with.

BOROWITZ: Right.

TOURE: They're in fourth place. They've got nada going on. A show with a faint heartbeat is better than a flat line.

BOROWITZ: Well, you look at what' in the pipeline at NBC. They announced they're doing yet another "Law & Order." It's, like, "Law & Order" DMV, I think. It's like the Department of Motor Vehicles. They are running...

O'BRIEN: They could work.

BOROWITZ: Yes. It's better than "Joey." I think they should reintroduce "Joey" next year as a drama.

BERNARD: But Matt LeBlanc, as we were just talking about, he won a People's Choice Award as favorite male TV actor. So people really like him. It's just the show that's not all that fascinating.

TOURE: NBC now is like the Bulls after Michael Jordan left. Like, they've got nothing. Like, it was...

BERNARD: Oh!

TOURE: They ran Thursday night for 20 years straight, right?

BOROWITZ: Right.

TOURE: And now nothing.

O'BRIEN: Doesn't it take time, though, to rebuild the Bulls after Michael Jordan?

BERNARD: It does a little bit.

O'BRIEN: I mean, as you point out, they've got...

TOURE: They still haven't rebuilt.

O'BRIEN: You know, they've got a star who obviously people like.

BERNARD: That's right.

O'BRIEN: It's just a matter of kind of tweaking, right?

BERNARD: Well, I think Jeff Licker (ph) was saying, who is the head of NBC, that they were going to hope for a 70 percent carryover of viewers from "Friends" into "Joey." And they've got about 60 percent. So that's all not that far off.

O'BRIEN: How long does it usually take for a show to kind of to get going? I mean, you did the "Fresh Prince." What's the...

BOROWITZ: Well, that one took off quickly. But sometimes, it's a case of being in the wrong time period, like "Seinfeld" the first two seasons, nothing. It wasn't until they put it on after "Cheers" that it took off.

BERNARD: Right. Well, look at "Arrested Development." I mean, that was hanging by a thread until all of the critics just embraced it.

BOROWITZ: Yes. Still, the ratings aren't strong.

O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thank you. Bill, Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, tune in tomorrow, we'll have live coverage of the Oscar nominations when they come out, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll have it for you Tuesday morning here on AMERICAN MORNING. Do some spoil it for everyone? The city of San Francisco may decide to add a tax for grocery shoppers. Andy explains. Back in a moment. Live here in chilly New York City, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN; Welcome back, everybody. Wall Street's open. A quick check on the action. And paper or plastic? It doesn't matter. It might cost you in one major city. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

Good morning to you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you. Let's start off with the stock market, shall we? And a little bit of a surprise, the market's up this morning. How about that? 29 points on the Dow, moving up here as you can see. One stock not doing so well, though. Travel Zoo, this is one of these online travel sites, stock's been all over the place. Last year it's gone from seven to 100. Now we might know why. The SEC is investigating trading in the stock by its own executives during 2004. So, maybe all that volatility, maybe there's something behind that.

Let's talk about this story that Soledad mentioned, paper or plastic might cost you. This is San Francisco, where the city's commission on the environment is recommending to the mayor that it impose a 17-cent per bag tax at the supermarket; if you get these bags and use them instead of bringing your own bag, you'd have to pay 17 cents. There are a couple little things here. They were doing this just to try to reduce the use of plastic bags, but they decided not to discriminate, and also tax paper as well, or they would.

O'BRIEN: For a long time you can get a bit of a discount if you brought your own bag. Now they're really going much further.

SERWER: Yes, they're considering it. Also the advocacy group behind this is one of my favorite new organizations I've heard about, Californians Against Waste. I just like to say it.

We found a bag downstairs in case Jack Cafferty wanted to do a little bit of shopping in San Francisco. Maybe buy some artichokes, Jack, if you're around looking at this, don't you think, Soledad?

HEMMER: Save him 17 cents.

SERWER: It has a nice shape to it, doesn't it?

It just really a splendid bag, so if you're going to San Francisco bring your own bag, perhaps, in the coming weeks and months.

O'BRIEN: That could save you a lot of money.

SERWER: It could. This bag is a very good deal.

O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: The U.S. State Department is stepping up its advertising campaign in Afghanistani and Pakistani newspapers, offering new rewards for the capture of Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorists. By the end of February, the White House may double the bounty on bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million.

In Chicago, Congress Mark Kirk of Illinois is with me now. He wrote the bill that would raise that reward.

Good morning to you, sir. Thanks for being here.

REP. MARK KIRK (R-IL), APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What would that do effectively, in this hunt, if you doubled the reward?

KIRK: Well, it causes a great deal of excitement. And we made a number of other challenges, where we think bin Laden is hiding is several provinces on the Afghan border. The people there are largely illiterate, and so we're going to back up this campaign with a radio campaign that is the primary way people find out about the world.

HEMMER: "Time" magazine is reporting that even if a local knew about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, he doesn't have the means to contact anybody within U.S. authority. What's being done to satisfy that, if that indeed is the case?

KIRK: The radio campaign is going to announce several other locations where a young Pakistani who wants to leave town can contact us. We feel that we need to make these changes to the program and make the rewards more flexible, like offering seeds, or a truck, or farm implements that mean a lot more to rural families up in that region that would like to provide this information.

HEMMER: Before we go much further, you just got back from Pakistan, right, about a week ago, a little less than that? What is happening in this search today that you can speak of?

KIRK: The Pakistani army has moved into the border regions where they have never been before. These regions join Pakistan 50 years ago on condition that the army never be there. But with the war on terror, President Musharraf has made the decision to deploy 70,000 troops into the frontier autonomous tribal areas, and we have cut the area that Osama bin Laden can hide in about half. But there's still a region of over a million people where he enjoys quite a bit of support that the army is now moving into.

HEMMER: The Pakistani troops you describe, are they kicking down doors? Are they going through caves? What are they doing?

KIRK: No, what they're doing is they're acting in a very political matter, reaching out to tribal leaders, offering schools, and hospitals and roads, in making sure that the tribes are on their side before moving through the territory.

Remember, Osama bin Laden is surrounded by Arabs, and Chechens and Uzbeks, none of whom speak the local languages. And so if the Pakistan army approaches this in a political fashion, they can keep the local population on our side and then turn over key bin Laden lieutenants.

HEMMER: And you're convinced he's still there?

KIRK: It looks like...

HEMMER: And what's the evidence that would suggest you're right?

KIRK: Because there are a number of Chechens and Uzbeks there, al Qaeda fighters. They regularly engage Pakistani forces. There was a battle there last week, and it's an area where bin Laden still enjoys quite a bit of support in almost 10,000 valleys that he can hide in.

HEMMER: Mark Kirk, fresh back from Pakistan, thanks for talking with us. We'll watch for that about if that bounty if indeed it is raised, and ultimately if it has any effect there as well.

Mark Kirk there in our Chicago bureau in Illinois. Thanks -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: We have been telling you this morning about an al Qaeda arrest that was announced a little bit earlier today, more on that is ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We have seen one clip of Johnny Carson quite a few times this morning. He played a joke on Myrtle Young and her collection of potato chips. Here's how talk show host Mike Douglas remembers that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DOUGLAS, FMR. TALK SHOW HOST: This little old woman came in with potato chips all -- she had saved for years with -- one is going to be a bird, one's an animal, and she's showing him this priceless potato chip, and Johnny reached over in the bowl and tuck took one, and when she was looking in a different direction when he crunched that...

JOHNNY CARSON, FMR. TALK SHOW HOST: No, no, no.

DOUGLAS: It was the biggest laugh I ever heard if my life, and the woman was in shock, but he said, no, no, it's here. But it was those kinds of things. I mean, that just happened. He made it happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That was so funny. Tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE," Larry's guest will be Johnny Carson's sidekick longtime sidekick Ed McMahon. That of course is at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. How funny was that. You can see that clip a hundred times and laugh out loud each and every time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired January 24, 2005 - 09:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING, the price on Osama bin Laden's head is expected to get higher by as much as $25 million. The question is, of course, why now? And will the change make any difference? We'll talk about with a Congressman who is the driving force behind the decision.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, good thing the storm hit over the weekend. Didn't have to deal with getting work, but today's a different story, got us a two-day advantage, huh, snow piled high across the Northeast again today. Intense storm over the weekend. Some situations very dangerous throughout the region.

Chad is out there in the thick of it. He's across the river in New Jersey, and he'll let us know how things are going so far today. so we'll check in with Chad.

O'BRIEN: Before that, though, let's get another check of the headlines with Carol Costello.

Good morning again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

You notice how Chad was dressed? He's dressed like a 10-year-old -- he can't move, he's got so many layers on.

Good morning to you. Good morning all of you.

Now in the news, Iraqi forces say they've captured a top al Qaeda figure linked to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Officials say the man has claimed responsibility for 32 car-bomb attacks since March of 2003. And there was another bombing in Baghdad today. Iraqi police say about a dozen people are injured. The blast took place near the headquarters of Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Here in the United States, finally, Boston's Logan Airport now back open after a powerful winter storm. Parts of Massachusetts are digging out after getting hit with two to three feet of snow. We'll have more on how the rest of the northeast is coping in just a moment.

And authorities in Florida say a convicted sex offender is now facing federal kidnapping charges under the abduction of an 11-year- old boy. Frederick Frest (ph) man was arrested yesterday in northern Georgia. Authorities excuse him of kidnapping his roommate's son last Tuesday from the boy's school in north central, Florida. The child is said to be safe and has since been reunited with his family. Asa Hutchinson, an undersecretary at the Homeland Security Department, is apparently not happy he was passed over for the top job. CNN now confirming Hutchinson will announce today he is planning to resign effective March 1st. That's when nominee Michael Chernoff is expected to take over for Tom Ridge as homeland security secretary. Of course he has to be confirmed by Congress first.

HEMMER: Thank you, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: It is one of the more essential B vitamins. Now a new study provides further evidence that folic acid is a dietary must. You can read all about it in this week's "Time" magazine. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from CNN Center with details on that.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning to you.

I know folic acid, obviously, supposed to take if you're pregnant or if you're thinking about getting pregnant. But there are benefits outside of that?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are benefits outside of that, and some of these are becoming increasingly well documented. It's nothing new that folic acid can be good for you, and there are few downsides to it, but a new study now coming out, looking specifically at women aged 27 to 44, and finding a reduced risks of hypertension, or high blood pressure, not just a little bit, but quite a bit, by 46 percent. It reduced the risk of high-blood pressure, hypertension, later on in life.

Again, Soledad, as you mentioned, millions of women already take folic acid to try and prevent birth defects, specifically neural tube defects, spinal cord defects, and it's very good at that. But there has been some evidence for some time that folic acid may also be good for reducing the risk of breast cancer and stroke. Most of the women in this study took between 250 and 300 micrograms of folic acid a day. For pregnant women, it's worth pointing out, the recommendation is to take 400 micrograms. That's about the amount found in one single daily vitamin.

Now, what they found is the women who took the most in this particular study, about a thousand micrograms a day, had the best results in terms of lowering the risk of hypertension, about a thousand micrograms a day -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You have to take it in a pill form, Sanjay, like if you do if you're pregnant, or you're thinking about getting pregnant, or are there foods that are high in folic acid that will get you to that magic number of 400 or 1,000?

GUPTA: You know, it's sort of interesting about this, because you and I talk about where's the best place to get your vitamins quite a bit. And I'll almost always say that it's going to be particular foods, fruits, for example, with vegetables, with their skins still on them. There are foods like that that as well, that do have high concentrations of folic, citrus fruits, tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, beans.

What's sort of interesting though about folic acid and folate in general, is that the foods that are fortified with folic acid, like you're cereals, like your whole grains, tend to be the best; people get the best results when they eat those foods fortified with folic acid. Of course you can get it in the vitamin as well, which appears to be very effective -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, good new. Thanks, Sanjay, appreciate it -- Bill.

GUPTA: Thank you.

HEMMER: People in San Francisco may want to cut back on their groceries when they hear what the city has planned. Let's hear what's happening there.

O'BRIEN: That sounds a little ominous.

Also, NBC disappointed by "Joey's" ratings, but they still have a reason for keeping him. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Back to Jack, and a great Question of the Day.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill.

Favorite Johnny Carson memories. He was funny. He was a great comedian, but the essence of the man behind the laughs is perhaps best captured in these last two e-mails. Judy in Wilmington, North Carolina writes this, "My favorite memory: a little girl who got to be principal of her school for a day was scheduled to be a guest on 'The Tonight Show.' When it came time for her to appear, she was afraid, she was crying and clutching her mother. Johnny went on with the rest of her show, but at the end, he brought her out, saying that he didn't want her to go home thinking that she had failed. With her mother beside her and Johnny holding her hand, she got through the interview. You could tell how much he cared about this girl and how much he wanted her to succeed. It says a lot about him. He was arguably the most powerful man in show business, and that night his only concern was for the feelings of a little girl no one had ever heard of."

And this one, Diane writes from St. Catherine's (ph) in Ontario, "My favorite memory, when he showed his own home video which he had taken of a hummingbird nest in his backyard. And at the end, when the final babies had left the nest, he became emotional, and said, and now they're gone. Sadly, so he is." Thanks for all of your letters.

HEMMER: Really good stuff, too. We've been remembering him throughout the morning, and as we continue through the morning here, here's Soledad with more on the life of Johnny Carson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Andy Borowitz joins us from BorowitzReport.com. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.

Favorite memory. Andy, why don't you start us off?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Well, I mean, there are so many great ones. I mean, I think that we've been seeing this clip over and over again of Johnny jumping into Ed McMahon's arms, you know, out of terror, which was a great one.

But I think just day to day what I loved about Johnny was the way he would recover when he was bombing, when his monologue was doing badly, and he would acknowledge it and he would do a soft shoe. And I think every comedian in the country wishes they had that kind of grace when they're in a similar predicament, which we all are from time to time.

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: I have to say, for some reason I remember this one, where the guy from the zoo would come on and bring all of the animals. And there was this monkey that looked exactly like him. You know, and then they both just sort of looked at the camera together. And, I mean, how hard is it to be with animals and be funny?

BOROWITZ: Yes.

BERNARD: I mean, it's just unbelievable.

BOROWITZ: And now everybody is doing it.

BERNARD: And now -- right.

BOROWITZ: That's the best.

O'BRIEN: Or trying.

BOROWITZ: Right.

BERNARD: I think the thing about it was the way he retired, don't you? I mean, he left on top, and he just -- he didn't start turning into, like, a KFC, Burger King pitchman or something, which he easily could have done.

TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the thing that I always loved -- the thing that I will always remember is last week, he just came out with a news story that Carson's feeding jokes to Letterman. So it's like his final public statement, Dave was better. Like, right at the end, like, I like Letterman. Like, just that's his final going-out moment.

O'BRIEN: Apparently, they said that it gave him a huge kick to see his jokes on the air, to see Letterman do his jokes.

BERNARD: And Letterman wouldn't tell anybody which ones they were. So it was just sort of like this private communication. O'BRIEN: Right.

TOURE: Jay is winning most of the Nielsen families, but the king of late night is preferring Dave.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about a totally different topic, which is "Joey," which kind of didn't do so well. I mean, you're shaking your head in disbelief.

TOURE: It's terrible.

O'BRIEN: But maybe they have got something there to work with. I mean, they obvious don't want to give up the franchise, because they've re-signed it for another year. What's going on there?

TOURE: NBC has nothing to work with.

BOROWITZ: Right.

TOURE: They're in fourth place. They've got nada going on. A show with a faint heartbeat is better than a flat line.

BOROWITZ: Well, you look at what' in the pipeline at NBC. They announced they're doing yet another "Law & Order." It's, like, "Law & Order" DMV, I think. It's like the Department of Motor Vehicles. They are running...

O'BRIEN: They could work.

BOROWITZ: Yes. It's better than "Joey." I think they should reintroduce "Joey" next year as a drama.

BERNARD: But Matt LeBlanc, as we were just talking about, he won a People's Choice Award as favorite male TV actor. So people really like him. It's just the show that's not all that fascinating.

TOURE: NBC now is like the Bulls after Michael Jordan left. Like, they've got nothing. Like, it was...

BERNARD: Oh!

TOURE: They ran Thursday night for 20 years straight, right?

BOROWITZ: Right.

TOURE: And now nothing.

O'BRIEN: Doesn't it take time, though, to rebuild the Bulls after Michael Jordan?

BERNARD: It does a little bit.

O'BRIEN: I mean, as you point out, they've got...

TOURE: They still haven't rebuilt.

O'BRIEN: You know, they've got a star who obviously people like.

BERNARD: That's right.

O'BRIEN: It's just a matter of kind of tweaking, right?

BERNARD: Well, I think Jeff Licker (ph) was saying, who is the head of NBC, that they were going to hope for a 70 percent carryover of viewers from "Friends" into "Joey." And they've got about 60 percent. So that's all not that far off.

O'BRIEN: How long does it usually take for a show to kind of to get going? I mean, you did the "Fresh Prince." What's the...

BOROWITZ: Well, that one took off quickly. But sometimes, it's a case of being in the wrong time period, like "Seinfeld" the first two seasons, nothing. It wasn't until they put it on after "Cheers" that it took off.

BERNARD: Right. Well, look at "Arrested Development." I mean, that was hanging by a thread until all of the critics just embraced it.

BOROWITZ: Yes. Still, the ratings aren't strong.

O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thank you. Bill, Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, tune in tomorrow, we'll have live coverage of the Oscar nominations when they come out, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll have it for you Tuesday morning here on AMERICAN MORNING. Do some spoil it for everyone? The city of San Francisco may decide to add a tax for grocery shoppers. Andy explains. Back in a moment. Live here in chilly New York City, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN; Welcome back, everybody. Wall Street's open. A quick check on the action. And paper or plastic? It doesn't matter. It might cost you in one major city. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

Good morning to you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you. Let's start off with the stock market, shall we? And a little bit of a surprise, the market's up this morning. How about that? 29 points on the Dow, moving up here as you can see. One stock not doing so well, though. Travel Zoo, this is one of these online travel sites, stock's been all over the place. Last year it's gone from seven to 100. Now we might know why. The SEC is investigating trading in the stock by its own executives during 2004. So, maybe all that volatility, maybe there's something behind that.

Let's talk about this story that Soledad mentioned, paper or plastic might cost you. This is San Francisco, where the city's commission on the environment is recommending to the mayor that it impose a 17-cent per bag tax at the supermarket; if you get these bags and use them instead of bringing your own bag, you'd have to pay 17 cents. There are a couple little things here. They were doing this just to try to reduce the use of plastic bags, but they decided not to discriminate, and also tax paper as well, or they would.

O'BRIEN: For a long time you can get a bit of a discount if you brought your own bag. Now they're really going much further.

SERWER: Yes, they're considering it. Also the advocacy group behind this is one of my favorite new organizations I've heard about, Californians Against Waste. I just like to say it.

We found a bag downstairs in case Jack Cafferty wanted to do a little bit of shopping in San Francisco. Maybe buy some artichokes, Jack, if you're around looking at this, don't you think, Soledad?

HEMMER: Save him 17 cents.

SERWER: It has a nice shape to it, doesn't it?

It just really a splendid bag, so if you're going to San Francisco bring your own bag, perhaps, in the coming weeks and months.

O'BRIEN: That could save you a lot of money.

SERWER: It could. This bag is a very good deal.

O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: The U.S. State Department is stepping up its advertising campaign in Afghanistani and Pakistani newspapers, offering new rewards for the capture of Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorists. By the end of February, the White House may double the bounty on bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million.

In Chicago, Congress Mark Kirk of Illinois is with me now. He wrote the bill that would raise that reward.

Good morning to you, sir. Thanks for being here.

REP. MARK KIRK (R-IL), APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What would that do effectively, in this hunt, if you doubled the reward?

KIRK: Well, it causes a great deal of excitement. And we made a number of other challenges, where we think bin Laden is hiding is several provinces on the Afghan border. The people there are largely illiterate, and so we're going to back up this campaign with a radio campaign that is the primary way people find out about the world.

HEMMER: "Time" magazine is reporting that even if a local knew about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, he doesn't have the means to contact anybody within U.S. authority. What's being done to satisfy that, if that indeed is the case?

KIRK: The radio campaign is going to announce several other locations where a young Pakistani who wants to leave town can contact us. We feel that we need to make these changes to the program and make the rewards more flexible, like offering seeds, or a truck, or farm implements that mean a lot more to rural families up in that region that would like to provide this information.

HEMMER: Before we go much further, you just got back from Pakistan, right, about a week ago, a little less than that? What is happening in this search today that you can speak of?

KIRK: The Pakistani army has moved into the border regions where they have never been before. These regions join Pakistan 50 years ago on condition that the army never be there. But with the war on terror, President Musharraf has made the decision to deploy 70,000 troops into the frontier autonomous tribal areas, and we have cut the area that Osama bin Laden can hide in about half. But there's still a region of over a million people where he enjoys quite a bit of support that the army is now moving into.

HEMMER: The Pakistani troops you describe, are they kicking down doors? Are they going through caves? What are they doing?

KIRK: No, what they're doing is they're acting in a very political matter, reaching out to tribal leaders, offering schools, and hospitals and roads, in making sure that the tribes are on their side before moving through the territory.

Remember, Osama bin Laden is surrounded by Arabs, and Chechens and Uzbeks, none of whom speak the local languages. And so if the Pakistan army approaches this in a political fashion, they can keep the local population on our side and then turn over key bin Laden lieutenants.

HEMMER: And you're convinced he's still there?

KIRK: It looks like...

HEMMER: And what's the evidence that would suggest you're right?

KIRK: Because there are a number of Chechens and Uzbeks there, al Qaeda fighters. They regularly engage Pakistani forces. There was a battle there last week, and it's an area where bin Laden still enjoys quite a bit of support in almost 10,000 valleys that he can hide in.

HEMMER: Mark Kirk, fresh back from Pakistan, thanks for talking with us. We'll watch for that about if that bounty if indeed it is raised, and ultimately if it has any effect there as well.

Mark Kirk there in our Chicago bureau in Illinois. Thanks -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: We have been telling you this morning about an al Qaeda arrest that was announced a little bit earlier today, more on that is ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We have seen one clip of Johnny Carson quite a few times this morning. He played a joke on Myrtle Young and her collection of potato chips. Here's how talk show host Mike Douglas remembers that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DOUGLAS, FMR. TALK SHOW HOST: This little old woman came in with potato chips all -- she had saved for years with -- one is going to be a bird, one's an animal, and she's showing him this priceless potato chip, and Johnny reached over in the bowl and tuck took one, and when she was looking in a different direction when he crunched that...

JOHNNY CARSON, FMR. TALK SHOW HOST: No, no, no.

DOUGLAS: It was the biggest laugh I ever heard if my life, and the woman was in shock, but he said, no, no, it's here. But it was those kinds of things. I mean, that just happened. He made it happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That was so funny. Tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE," Larry's guest will be Johnny Carson's sidekick longtime sidekick Ed McMahon. That of course is at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. How funny was that. You can see that clip a hundred times and laugh out loud each and every time.

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