C Is For Cookie

"Sesame Street" kicked off it's 35th season last week.  It's hard to believe the show has been around that long.  It's helped millions of kids learn their letters and numbers.  My first memories of "Sesame Street" are of watching it before school.  The kids that got to school early would get to watch it on one of the big bulky TV's in the classroom.  I liked "Sesame Street" much better than "The Electric Company."  I thought it was more colorful and entertaining.  As a 7 year old kid, that's very important criteria for a TV show.  "Sesame Street" is more than just a show about numbers and the alphabet; it's helped kids learn about getting along with each other.  It's also helped kids learn to accept others that are different from them.  In the 70's, a deaf actress portrayed a deaf librarian, and her character functioned as well as the other characters who had their hearing. In 2003, a Muppet character of a little girl monster that was HIV positive was introduced.  They explained how the character had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion shortly after she was born.  Shortly after 9/11, the show aired episodes that helped kids deal with the terrorist attacks and other natural disasters.  With childhood obesity rates soaring, "Sesame Street" is doing its part to promote heathy eating and exercise.  This season, Cookie Monster will learn that cookies are a "somtimes" food. 

Our beloved Cookie Monster - who sang "C Is For Cookie, That's Good Enough For Me" will now be singing "A Cookie Is A Sometimes Food", where he'll learn that there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods.  I really don't think that Cookie Monster has caused kids not to eat healthy, no more than I think that Otis Campbell on "The Andy Griffith Show" caused adults to get DUIs.  It's just a case of political correctness gone a bit too far. 

The show's producers insist that Cookie Monster is not giving up his cookie habit - merely cutting back a little.  "We're not putting him on a diet, " a spokesman said. "We're teaching him moderation."  Reports also say that Cookie Monster will try different kinds of cookies rather than just eating chocolate chip cookies. I just can't see Cookie Monster eating those almost fat-free sugar wafer cookies - it just doesn't seem right.  Each episode this season will open with a health tip about nutrition, exercise, hygiene and rest.  They will also introduce new characters, such as talking eggplants.  As long as they don't sing "C is for carrot", that's good enough for me.