Shows / Knee Deep
Knee Deep
Welcome to Knee Deep, a five-minute story in a cup. It’s light, not too deep, with just enough of the tide washing in to reset your day and help you get back on your feet. Wade in with me. Hear a funny tale, or my observations on life under the surface. I’m Jeff Bender, author and artist, thinker of Knee Deep thoughts. So, you’ve rushed out of the house and spilt your coffee down the front of your shirt. The news cycle is heavy, the traffic's honking and, well, you just want to stick your feet…
Episodes
- Knee Deep
Where Art Takes Flight
If you’ve ever wanted to take in all the artistic masterpieces of the world in one fell swoop, look no further! Here at Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale…
- Knee Deep
The Gourd, The Bad, and the Ugly: A Tale of Squash and Burn
When their overweight cousin Zuke gets snatched off the vine and held hostage on a giant catapult, Mr. Pumpkin calls on the Pumpkin Nation to help. Will their…
- Knee Deep
A Belly Full of Faith: The Tectonic Force that Holds Us
Walking among the weathered boulders of the Arizonadesert, one sees a delicate relationship they have with their center of gravity. The exact point of balance…
- Knee Deep
Objects in the Mirror are Actually Larger than My Car
Most of the things we desire in life are completely without merit. They serve only to boost a low self-esteem, or fulfill a temporary craving, usually one with…
- Knee Deep
Soggy by Six, Summit and Champagne by Seven: My Guide to the Ultimate Triathlon
A record-breaking swim, extraordinary climb and bike tourall in one day. An unsurpassable athletic event. A sports feat that would stretch the body beyond its…
- Knee Deep
Pulling the Plug on Perfectionism
It only took a couple of chaotic knock-knock jokes withmy granddaughter to remind me that life’s best moments are never scripted. Breaking free of our…
- Knee Deep
Audit at Eighty Mile per Hour
It turns out the IRS doesn't accept "the wind ate my tax returns" as a valid excuse for an extension. I watched my financial history scatter across the highway…
- Knee Deep
2026 No-Undertow Word Tour: Sammy Surfer Returns
Every year now since our surfing friend Sammy pushed offthe shore to find his footing, his world tour has eventually brought him back to us. While he dodges…
- Knee Deep
Wherever You Spam, There You Are
I always thought the function of being notified ofincoming spam was to let me know there is someone suspicious calling, but I never thought in a million years…
- Knee Deep
Too Many Stinkin' Jeffs!
Noise, growth, and color…the glorious trifecta of Spring.Acceleration is in the air, and my new theory of Re-Jeffing is revving into action and gaining…
- Knee Deep
The Geometry of a Jump Shot
On paper, it looked like Duke had it in the hoop, but when you take the X-factor out of an equation, you get a kind of basketball madness that anyone can win…
- Knee Deep
Our Toad Never Made the Cut on Wild Kingdom
Walt Disney had an answer for everything when it came to animals, except he couldn't teach our new pet, a toad, when to hold its tongue and back off.
- Knee Deep
I Killed a Moose in My Living Room
Alone in the Arctic. Starving. Cold. Lonely. As long as we had our couch, our TV and each other, there'd be no tapping out.
- Knee Deep
In the Midst of Our Drift with Mr. Machine
In the middle of Winter, we find ourselves in a spot where our balance is shaky. We are in the in-between, the part that is drifting and loose as we wait for…
- Knee Deep
Bracing for Anywhere Between Three and Twenty-Seven Inches of Snow
We get our share of snow dustings here in EvanspatchIndiana, little false starts, but the real stuff does crazy things to us whenit comes. It changes our DNA…
- Knee Deep
Showing the World Hoosier Daddy
Everyone loves a dark horse. IU’s winning football season has swept everyone off their couches into the winning zone of state pride. We buried our heads in…
- Knee Deep
2026, The Year of the Dogs Bollocks
What is up with the word “sick” anyway? I’m sorry but there was not a chance on God’s green earth that I was going to adopt that word when I had an entire…
- Knee Deep
First, We Have to Get Small
Sometimes we have to get very small to become available for the season of Christmas. If we don’t, we may miss that first hint of magic that is in the air and a…
- Knee Deep
Dixie Cups and the Pale Green Jar
Having your tonsils removed may be the first time we realized we don’t get to keep everything we get. Even so, I thought Show and Tell might delay the process…
- Knee Deep
Dispatch from an Uncomfortable Astronaut
It stands to reason that the phrases “antique show” and“space technology” probably shouldn’t be used in the same sentence. Be that as it may, when a vintage…
- Knee Deep
Down by the Low and Cool
The loud and the brash may tell us that we have much to fear. Yet just down the block the church bells chime softly, reminding us that hope is alive and…
- Knee Deep
From Expressway to Distressway, and Beyond
Here in the Midwest, we don’t like a lot of change. We arein the middle, not on the edge. We like variety, but we like our constants more. So, when our…
- Knee Deep
Water Under the (tallest) Bridge
Fear of heights in this country is pretty common – like sixout of every ten people, but what about fear of heights and tall bridges and really large people and…
- Knee Deep
Your Signature Ride
“I like you the most when… Always stay sweet…Remember mewhen you are famous.” Usually we read these messages on yearbooks this time as school closes and summer…
- Knee Deep
It's All a Blur to Me
There’s all kinds of great sayings out there about thedifference between having good sight and good vision. One is physical of course, the other touches on our…
- Knee Deep
Goodnight from Beetle Street
The smallest spaces are the universes we stop to peerinto. They are made from beetles and Hosta and partly watched TV shows. Try this on: “You go ahead of me…
- Knee Deep
Par For the Course (or horse)
When my father passed away last week I imagined him finally meeting all of his golf heroes in Heaven's pro shop who would help him fine tune his chip shot and…
- Knee Deep
In a Garden, It's the Work You Don't See that Matters
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well,don’t follow the lines in that poem or you may come up empty handed this gardening season…
- Knee Deep
The Boss in the Background
What we see in our life here on earth are but smallsnapshots of the greater vision that God has planned for us. We can look into each other’s eyes, but the…
- Knee Deep
Choose Two Puppets and... NEUTRAL PLEASE!
They are among the least, the lost and the lonely – those puppets propped up at local car washes. They are supposedly there for children, but the looks on…
- Knee Deep
Ten Reasons Why Ducks are in My Will
We officially kick off the new green and greenery of the season when our seasonal pet mallards, Maude and Claude drop in like a couple of duck bombs out of…
- Knee Deep
My Covenant with a Crocus
You are seeking something aren't you? What is it? A person you miss, a goal left unmet? Around there are signs all around you in the woods that may point to…
- Knee Deep
In The Midst of Our Drift
Winter sits heavy like a spoon mired in oatmeal, unmoving,bland and monotonous. For those of us in the middle, in the midst of our drift, we approach the…
- Knee Deep
Stark Waving Mad and So Am I
Be careful where you wave your hand. In an attempt to create an antiseptic experience, we have abdicated the public restroom and replaced it with a giant…
- Knee Deep
Coming Down On the Side of...So What?
We are coming down on the side of so what, a side where apathy and awareness are mixed in a blender and drunk like a protein shake. It’s a side we all may all…
- Knee Deep
Turning Fires Into Faces
Fires. Loss. Desperation. The onion we call life has peeled back another pungent layer that makes our eyes water. The faces we see in California are in pain…
- Knee Deep
Where Men and Mountain Meet
During this last ice storm, I lost some of my desire to plummet down a ski slope at breakneck speed, and zoom into a rustic log cabin wrapped in a bright…
- Knee Deep
Luck and Destiny: Two Ships that Pass in the Night
When we map out the new year of 2025, it helps to make some concrete decisions about what we believe in. Will we allow life to impose its will on us or will we…
- Knee Deep
Taking a Knee at Midfield
It was just a few days before Christmas and I was surrounded by thousands of other spectators at my first NFL football game. However, the last second field…
- Knee Deep
Fifteen Minutes of Pancake Fame
Hummmmm♪♪♪ “And so this is Christmas, and what have you made? Another huge pancake, fills up the whole plate.” …not exactly John Lennon, but I think he’d agree…
- Knee Deep
Yuletide Aisle Dis-Ease
The holiday season is creeping up on us like the second hand in a scary movie. No one hears the ticking until the camera zooms in on the Gothic clock and the…
- Knee Deep
And the Toys Were Hung By the Fireplace With Care
Toys change when they fall in the hands of a kid also because kids think like smaller versions of the toy inventor. My brother and I were no exceptions. We…
- Knee Deep
What You Bring to the Table This Thanksgiving
Whatever dish you are adding to the mix at the table may fall flat if bad manners are oozing off the edges. Time to ramp up the etiquette and leave our Viking…
- Knee Deep
Either Way You Slice It: Part Two
A truck that is about to fall apart, the blankness of a highway, a horizon that never stop. The definition of dullness takes on a new meaning, and it wasn’t…
- Knee Deep
Either Way You Slice It
One of the great mysteries in the archives of Knee Deep history is the true identity of Mr. Pumpkin. As a leader of Pumpkin Nation, he appears to have set up…
- Knee Deep
Happy 102nd and Climbing, Dad!
The week brought all of us a new president, but the American flew even higher as my father turned 102 years old. His legacy lies sin his lifetime of service…
- Knee Deep
It WAS Melba Peach, with the Crock Pot, on the Porch
What do the words Anonymous, New England Breeze and Market Kiwi have in common? Almost nothing as it turns out – unless you are trying to pick a paint color…
- Knee Deep
Walk Softy and Carry a Big Jello Salad
We were told growing up that subjects like politics and religion were off limits in polite conversations, especially around voting time. Jell-O salad, a much…
- Knee Deep
Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!
Emily Dickinson said, “I am out with lanterns looking for myself.” Hopefully, we let the light shine on the areas that reveal the real us and keep the other…
- Knee Deep
One Big Happy Swarm
Craziness, chaos and crisis, or levity and lightness? Where are we headed in the swarm? Perhaps, like me, a simple summer memory will inspire you to step away…
- Knee Deep
The Unremarkable Diet of Dora Hubbard: Part Two
As Dora gains a national platform on the radio, the famed Dr. Adcock reveals Dora’s source of ignorant calories, a cosmic source that awakens Dora to the…
- Knee Deep
The Unremarkable Diet of Dora Hubbard
Apparently, everywhere around us there are unusual sources of energy are finding ways into our bodies. In this episode, a desperate young lady, Dora, may have…
- Knee Deep
Right Between the Eyes
Perhaps it is the pesky, annoying experiences in life, the ones that sometimes bring out the worst in us, that are disguises for something called Serendipity…
- Knee Deep
Balloon Boycott Possible in 2028 Olympics
Before the 2024 Paris Olympics completely fade from view, I pause to look back at a sporting event that never really got off the ground. Americans and the…
- Knee Deep
Education May Come Down to the Last Potato
There is no better feeling when you are a kid than the first day of summer. Teachers pulled out all the stops to keep our interests high in the classroom as…
- Knee Deep
Vacation Would Work If I Didn't Have to Relax
It’s possible to plan a vacation on the beach, but “planning to relax” is an oxymoron. I thought a poolside setting with a drink, some sun and good…
- Knee Deep
Heart to Heart with Sammy Surfer Dude: Miracle at Sea
Our surfing hero, Sumatra Sammy has miraculously returned from a perilous World Tour, where he battled an amputation, loneliness, and a lost spirit. His quirdy…
- Knee Deep
Even Fish Have to Have a Good Fish Story
Truth is truly stranger than fiction...except when it comes to fish in a pond, and then even the truth can become muddy, like a good fish story, and take a…
- Knee Deep
Knees Up, Head Down, In the Cellar
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program…” is a sign that danger is lurking in the upper atmosphere, that conditions are right for uncertainty and…
- Knee Deep
Cutting Each Other Some Quack
Yes, by now you know them by name. Our flighty yard guests, Maude and Claude, who come in every year and teach us something new about ducks, but also about how…