Warning! Not for children

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to a book signing of Street Gang: the Complete History of Sesame Street. One of the stories I find myself telling over and over again is this: Apparently, if you buy a DVD of the first two seasons of Sesame Street, it comes with a warning label. According to Michael Davis, author of the Street Gang book, the scene below is one of the reasons for the label:



Other offenses include (1) a little girl sliding down a slide such that you can see her underpants, (2) as the nytimes article indicates, the "monsterpiece theatre" parody in which Alistair Cookie holds a pipe, and (3) a series of political activists appearing on the show (like Buffy there). What really makes me feel sad about this situation is the reality that we have done so much social backsliding since the '70s. Progress was made and then immediately snatched from our hands. There was also a lot of kidnapping/child molestation fear in the 80s, which is what made Snuffleupagus become real. They didn't want kids to think about a situation where they were trying to get adults to believe them and the adults couldn't see what was happening, which makes sense.

Anyway, the booksigning wasn't all depressing (although Liliana and I both had to hold back tears as the author read the script from the episode where Mr. Hooper died). I stood in line with a guy who has the same uncanny memory that I have and I shocked and embarassed my friends by breaking out into the following song with this strange man:



Hehehe, I forgot about Andy. Man, I loved that show. The stranger and I sang this song in response to the (false) rumor that Cookie Monster is going to be changed into "Veggie" Monster. We were remembering that there is already a veggie character. Apparently now Cookie Monster states that cookies are a "sometimes food." Fair enough. But, as the wikipedia entry points out, anyone who has watched Cookie Monster knows that he doesn't eat just cookies.