March marked the fifth anniversary of the premiere of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. The six-week ABC mini-series won an Emmy Award for “Best Reality Series” and catapulted Huntington, West Virginia into the national spotlight. Not only did the lush, colorful scenes that opened each installment put an attractive face on the area, it brought permanent…
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Time magazine’s recent cover story on health pictured a wide-eyed infant next to the headline: “This baby could live to be 142 years old.” The feature touched off such discussions as one raising the question: is it a good idea to live that long? Most of the cover package stories detailed research into aging and…
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According to the researchers who check the pulse of America, I live in the most miserable state in the nation. West Virginia recently topped the ratings for the sixth consecutive year, dragged down by such factors as poor well-being, motivation, finances, safety, and health. Kentucky and Ohio, the two states bordering the area where I…
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A teenager from St. Charles, Missouri—a half-hour northwest of St. Louis—recovered after spending 15 minutes under water following his plunge into an ice-covered lake. It’s a story so miraculous that in addition to local media, it received coverage recently in USA Today and a report on the Today show. There are many similar accounts. They…
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Since it had been a long time since I wrote about the company, I didn’t know until recently that Logos Bible Software had been renamed Faithlife Corporation. Name changes are nothing to get excited about, especially in this era of corporate gobbledygook and government obfuscation, whose goal seems to be hindering communication. However, what caught…
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The news of the recent collapse of an old overpass bridge onto I-75 in Cincinnati, Ohio hit me on more than one level. For one, I grew up two hours north of Cincinnati and had driven that stretch of road on many occasions, including the winter I had a college internship at the Cincinnati Enquirer.…
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I received a call last week from an associate I hadn’t talked with for years. She wanted to congratulate me on my recent story in Christianity Today about buying bestsellers. She was particularly impressed that the story seemed so balanced and didn’t take sides in the issue that became significant last year. The spark came…
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Filming begins next week on 90 Minutes in Heaven. It is based on the book whose first printing of 5,000 copies later surpassed five million in sales—the living definition of “unexpected best seller.” I have a personal connection with the book. I was one of the first to interview Don Piper about his experience for…
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In what is surely a sign of the times, rather than a Christmas card in mid-December, at year’s end I received an e-mail from an old friend. His wife passed away last April, and she likely handled the mailing duties. He mentioned compiling a list last fall of 80 things he wanted to accomplish before…
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Like much of the nation, the flu has struck numerous people in my immediate circles. That prompted the postponement of a family birthday party a week, and a similar delay for another get-together for a game night. Both delays occurred the same week a story appeared in our local newspaper about the wave of flu…
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