children's Bibles: USA Today article

Ted and Alexis Olsen chose The Jesus Storybook Bible to read to son, Leif (photo: John Zich, USA Today)

I was interviewed by USA Today and they are running an article about children's storybook Bibles. The Jesus Storybook Bible caught the attention of several of their sources (including Ted Olsen of Christianity Today, seen above reading from non other!) who liked it because of "its unique theological approach" and because it doesn't "hammer down the meaning of the Bible to one long lesson in obedience." Cathy Grossman spoke to me about the challenges of writing children's Bibles. It's an interesting article and you can read it here.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (1957)

OK so I went to the British Television Advertising Awards 2007: Award-Winning British Commercials at MOMA yesterday and saw really cool stuff. (Confession: one of the biggest culture shocks of coming to the States from the UK is the dire quality of adverts here.) More on that later this week... but before I show you one particularly silly ad from that, I need to show you this. In this b&w clip, first broadcast on BBC Panorama (a serious documentary program) on 1st April 1957, a very young Richard Dimbleby revealed the wonderful world of Swiss spaghetti production to millions of deprived and hungry post-war Brits. (To be fair, back then Spaghetti was not eaten much and was rather exotic.) Most of Britain were taken in. Even my dad (who is usually dreadfully brilliant and smart) even the likes of he, totally fell for this giant April Fool's joke! Which just goes to show, if you have a serious and very important enough voice, you can hoodwink anyone. What an inspiration to us all.