Guess it was a slow news day on the Today show, um, today, as the NBC morning show threw a tap-water taste test pitting H20 from Dallas against agua from such towns as Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Cleveland and Miami. (KXAS-Channel 5 was responsible for sending in Dallas' sample.) "Is municipal water good enough to drink?" asked Meredith Vieira, and the two wine-tasters brought in to conduct the test were unimpressed by most of the contestants. One tasted like water straight out of a garden hose; another, like something poured from "an empty baby food jar"; another, like "concrete." Their commentary amused Matt Lauer to no end.

Those epithets might have been aimed at Dallas' water, which didn't even make the top three: The finalists were Columbia, South Carolina, and Boston, while the winner came from Salt Lake City. "It's not salty," said Vieira. "Rich," said one of the experts, and "bright." We wonder if Dallas' is the water one of the wine tasters wouldn't "even want to shower in." Nah, had to be Cleveland's, right? --Robert Wilonsky

• News