I've learned a lot about conflict through the years: through personal relationships, through raising children, and through church leadership situations. But this lesson in conflict, brought to you by Sesame Street (featuring Robin Williams and the Two-Headed Monster), is one of the best that I've ever seen.

(via 22 Words)

I received a rather unusual e-mail this morning, from a television producer in the UK. The communication resulted from a piece that I wrote almost four years ago, specifically a story about digging through my daughter's feces for money. With the permission of the sender, I've copied the original e-mail here below:

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 10:21 AM, Siaron James (Miss) <siaron.james@cwmnida.tv> wrote:

Dear Pastor Asp,
I hope you don't mind me contacting you with a slightly odd question.
I am currently working on a documentary for the UK TV channels BBC & S4C provisionally entitled  ‘The Toilet – An Unspoken History’;  which will be looking at the design, cultural and social history of the toilet, the toilet of today and its future.
Part of our filming will take us to the Netherlands, and I am particularly looking for a shelf-type toilet in Amsterdam for our crew to film.
I came across the picture of your toilet on your blog and would like to ask you if you would be willing to let our crew film it.
The crew will be in Amsterdam on Thursday 8th December, so I wonder if you could tell me if it would be at all possible for them to film the toilet sometime on that day? I cannot give you an exact time yet, but if there is a period of time that is preferable to you, please let me know so that I can work it into the schedule.
Of course we will do our best not to cause too much disruption. The crew is a very small one – only 3 people (cameraman, soundman, and presenter/director) and the filming should only take an hour at the very most.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require more information before deciding - if you would like me to phone you for a chat I'd be happy to.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Kindest regards,
Siaron

Unfortunately, I had to offer the disappointing news that our shelf toilet was replaced two years ago. But I did mention that I'd be willing to post something here -- always up for cultural curiosities and a long-time fan of documentary production -- in the hope that someone else in the Amsterdam area might be willing to let their shelf-style toilet be documented for posterity's sake. The response was as follows:

If you find you know anyone that has one (and may be up for us filming it) please do put them in touch with me as soon as possible - ideally it needs to be in Amsterdam, although it might also be ok if it’s somewhere en route between Amsterdam and Schiphol airport.

So what do you say, Amsterdam friends? Does anyone know of a good shelf-style toilet in the neighborhood? I'll be curious to see if something might work out...

My kids love playing this simple "Crash Game," where they run at me and knock me onto my back, while holding them in my arms. There's no object to the "game" actually, except to try and create dramatic (but harmless) collisons. We've been doing this since Elliot was a toddler.

So anyway, last week we were in the park, and I decided to try and capture video footage of the Crash Game from a first-hand perspective, using my camera phone. It was fun to see how the videos turned out, and the kids also got a kick out of watching themself charge the camera; so I figured I'd share the experience here, too, for a broader public.

I think it's especially interesting to see how the different kids respond to the Crash Game experience in different ways. Note the various "starting lines" and the unique reactions in the immediate aftermath of the collison. To me, it seems like their responses to the game -- same place, same time, same game, same circumstances -- reveal interesting things about their personalities. What do you think?

The Czechs are amazingly good at making animated children's entertainment.

Our family's introduction to Czech animation was through a DVD that we were given, entitled "Het Molletje" ("The Little Mole"). We later learned that this series of animated films was originally produced under the name "Krtek" ("The Mole") in the former Czechoslovakia, starting in the 1950s. The stories are almost wordless -- mostly just music and sound effects, so language is not an issue -- and they follow the adventures of this little cartoon mole and other woodland creatures who get into all kinds of interesting situations. To give you a little taste of this series, I found a clip on-line from one of my favorite episodes, where the forest gets razed to make way for an urban development:

The rest of this episode is equally delightful; but unfortunately, I can't find the rest of it in embeddable form. If you can ever figure out a way to watch this episode -- or any of the installments of Krtek that you might be able to find -- I would highly recommend it. It's enjoyable entertainment for both children and adults, from all different cultural backgrounds.

Later on, our family was introduced to another Czech series which the Dutch call "Buurman & Buurman" ("Neighbor & Neighbor") -- but which is apparently entitled "Pat & Mat" ("Check and Checkmate") in Czech. It's a stop-motion animation series (as opposed to the more classic style of animation employed by Krtek), but it's equally well-done. These two characters use a bit more of the spoken word than Krtek, though it's still remarkably easy to follow. Our children are especially crazy about "Buurman Buurman" -- laughing their heads off at their antics. Yet again, I often find myself laughing right along with them. It's another great series that I would highly recommend.

I'm glad that we've been exposed to these sources of entertainment, since we've been living in Europe. Honestly, I wonder why these series never made their way over to North America. Growing up, we were able to enjoy things like the Smurfs (from Belgium) and Voltron (from Japan)... But never Krtek or Pat & Mat. Could it be because Americans were worried about the show's potential Communist influences (which would be very ironic, since the old Communist regimes also worried that these shows were too critical of their government!)? That's actually my best guess, but who knows? At any rate, if you've never had the chance to see these shows for yourself, I would highly encourage you to Czech them out (sorry, I just couldn't resist the pun!).