The Big Show

Ted Kuepper is an environmental engineer with a deep appreciation for nature and the environmental challenges we face today. In his career, he has been the managing director of a seawater desalination test facility for the US Navy, and executive director of an international nonprofit organization focused on supplying safe water to rural villages in developing countries. Within his humanitarian work he has traveled to some of the world's most remote locations, helping to supply water during natural disasters. He began writing the first Archie Artichoke story quite by accident! As the story goes - He was driving his family to Sequoia National Park in California and the kids were getting more fidgety by the minute. When that happened, he'd often start singing a song to get everyone to stop thinking of how long the drive had been and how uncomfortable their old Chevy station wagon was. For some reason on that day, driving up the hill to the entrance of the park, he sang this single lyric: "Artichoke, you're a funny bloke." He was as surprised as the rest of the family, since he had never heard that lyric before. It appeared at that moment-and probably was the result of his wife and him attempting to educate their children on the rewards of eating vegetables. The lyrical line was easy to sing, and from there he wrote more lyrics about Archie Artichoke to finish what eventually became known as "The Artichoke Song." Soon after, he wrote a song about a little dance he did with his kids around the house, and its title became "Archie's Dance Tune." You may recognize the melody of "Archie's Dance Tune" since it's the military cadence song "I don't know, but I've been told..." Ted was in the Marine Corps during the 1960's, and that particular song made a lasting impression on him as it was sung during the many exercise activities that all Marines endure during training. He invites you to visit his website, www.ArchieArtichoke.com.