In today's blog post: Who is Ira Glass? And where is that missing child?!

Well, it's very, very long overdue, but I'm proud to say that two of the mysteries presented on this blog have been resolved! (This post is one part fulfilled expectations, one part crack investigative journalism. Yes, I will gladly accept my Pulitzer nomination...)

I've received word back from two of my "outstanding" e-mails: that requesting an interview with This American Life's Ira Glass, and that inquiring about the missing child (video) on Today's Big Thing. Rather than summarize, I'll transcribe the e-mails here:

From Emily Condon (Office Manager, This American Life)
Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your very nice email. It’s always touching to hear from people who’ve been so influenced by This American Life (and I’m happy to know that the educators of America are doing their part to get the show out there!)

Here’s the thing about interviews: Ira gets so many requests like this that if we fulfilled all of them, or really almost any of them, we’d never get a radio show produced. And it doesn’t seem fair or really even possible to arbitrarily pick and choose. So we’re forced to say no to them unless they’re directly tied to something very particular that we’re doing or occasionally if it’s for a pledge drive for a station TAL airs on or something. So I’m afraid that this isn’t possible given his current schedule. However – I will keep your email and if something changes or his schedule frees up I will let you know.

I do have one suggestion that I think you might find helpful: Ira published a kind of radio manifesto on transom.org a while back that functions as pretty much exactly what you’re asking for - advice and thoughts about navigating the world of radio and so forth. If you go to www.transom.org and type his name into the search engine, it will come up. I think you might find it really helpful.

Hope that helps, and thanks for listening!

All best,
Emily

Not the answer I was hoping for, but the answer I was expecting. I was impressed, though, with just how polite she was about the whole thing. And though it has taken me quite some time to follow up about this e-mail on this blog, she actually got back to me very quickly. Most impressive.

From Kevin (On behalf of Today's Big Thing)

Hi Daniel,

The creators of the video decided they weren't comfortable with how popular the video was becoming and asked us to remove it. Sorry.

Kevin

Short and sweet. And I guess that makes sense. It's one thing to take down a sensitive video because of complaints about its controversial content - which I was sure was going to be the culprit, in this case. However, I can certainly understand not wanting a video of your seven-or-eight-year-old nephew/cousin becoming the latest Internet meme. I respect that.

Curiosities in the Digital Universe: Round I, Part 2

[The photo below is, of course, not the missing video in question, but proof that it once existed. I'm not crazy!]

For those of you who follow this blog faithfully - which, I figure, is next to no-one - you may notice that one of the videos from my last post has turned up missing. That particular video, entitled "Adorable Child Accepts Gay Marriage," featured a boy - probably seven or eight years old - at a Thanksgiving get-together, talking to an older uncle or cousin about the fact that he was married to another man. In the video, he says something to the effect of: "I've heard of husbands and wives before, but never husbands and husbands," and "well, then you two are in love?" With little difficulty, the tike says "Okay...I'm going to go play ping-pong, but you can come if you want." It is, of course, hard to describe, but the video was funny and heart-warming, and had something important to say about gay rights and the acceptance of gay couples.

When I returned to my blog today, I noticed that the above-described video had been replaced by a different one, of a frustrated reporter out in the field. I followed the link to website where I found it, Today's Big Thing, to find that it was gone. I looked back through the days preceding to make sure I hadn't missed it.   searched the website's archives. It was gone, nowhere to be found. I thought that I would replace the embedded video on my blog with another link from another site. It turns out that the video had been removed not only from Today's Big Thing, but from College Humor (where the video originated) and YouTube. I Googled it further, and found several websites - StumbleUpon, vodpod, BoingBoing, etc. - which claimed to have it. Of course, because the video's source was removed, they did not. In two day's time, the video disappeared completely from the Interweb.

Now, what I want to know is this: What's happened to the adorable child? When a child goes missing elsewhere in the world, people are (rightly) up in arms about it. So, I decided to pursue it, and see what TBT had to say for itself. I e-mailed them only minutes ago, but if/when word comes back to me, I'll be sure to pass the story along to you.