Just so you know:  I was never that big a fan of Sesame Street.  By the time I became the age of their target demographic, I was already past letters & numbers and was into reading sentences.
Not bad for a two-and-a-half-year old, eh? (grin)
Anyway, I was more into Electric Company  at that tender young age.  However, that’s not to say I didn’t watch SS at all  – in fact, I had a couple of favorite characters.  One of them was Maria – you remember, Luis’ then-girlfriend (now wife, if memory serves)?  Quite the hottie, she.
The other one was the subject of my rant today, that being the googly-eyed blue shag carpet known as the Cookie Monster.  Ate everything in sight – edible or not. (grin)  Known & loved for his trademark signature phrase – “Cooooooooooo-kieeeeeeeeeee”
Well, that bastion of We Know Better What’s Best For Your Child Than You Do™, the asshatted liberals at the Corporation for Pubic Public Broadcasting who write Sesame Street,  have unilaterally decided to take our beloved Cookie Monster away and replace him with a lookalike that purports to tell your kids how they should eat – IOW, a further attempt to take your job of parenting your rugrat away from you.  Chelsea Carter of AP reports:
Something must be wrong in the land of Muppets.
Something has been wrong with Public Television™ for a while now, Chel.  You mean you’re just now noticiing?
First PBS announced that Sesame Street would kick off its 35th season this week with a multiyear story arc about healthy habits.
Oh, yeah.  A three-year-old is going to listen intently to a message telling him he oughta start eating GrapeNuts©.  YeahRight™.
No problem there; childhood obesity rates are soaring.
Pray tell, Chel – why  would childhood obesity rates be a problem for you, eh?  Are they all your  crumb-crunchers, hmmmmmmmmmm?
Then I learned of changes that turned my Sesame Street world upside-down.
My beloved blue, furry monster – who sang “C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me” – is now advocating eating healthy. There’s even a new song – “A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food,” where Cookie Monster learns there are “anytime” foods and “sometimes” foods.
“Sacrilege!” I cried. “That’s akin to Oscar the Grouch being nice and clean.” (Co-workers gave me strange looks. But I didn’t care.)
Great Honkin’ Cthulu™, I thought the exchange system  diet was bad…
People, we’re talking about a Muppet here.  Muppets don’t go on diets.  They entertain little children (and, on occasion, politically incorrect adults who don’t have their knickers twisted).  Making sure the kiddos eat right is the job of the parents.
Sheesh.
Being a journalist, I did the only thing I knew how to do. I investigated why Sesame Street gave Cookie Monster a health makeover.
The answer would lead me into a world where television producers worked with health experts and politicians
Translated, a place where micromanaging busybody dumbasses are convinced that they Do Not Have Enough To Do™.  The most dangerous place for these snotwits to possibly be.
Feel free to go read the rest of the article.  Just make sure you haven’t eaten anything beforehand, lest you…(pun intended)…toss your cookies.
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What a pile of flaming horseshit.
To the degree that “an epidemic of childhood obesity” exists, it isn’t due to eating too many cookies. US caloric intake hasn’t changed much in over 50 years. (And consider that the 1950s diet was essentially “heart-attack-on-a-plate” three times daily by modern standards.)
What has changed? For starters, we didn’t have “diet” anything back in the ’50s. Everything was loaded with saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar and caffeine. Neither did we have Playstations, TV remotes, automatic garage door openers, power steering or the general expectation that we shouldn’t have to walk more than ten feet across a parking lot. Parents didn’t have to chase their kids out of the house – they had to admonish them to “be home by dinnertime.”
If PBS, politicians and “health experts” (whatever that means) were serious about improving childhood obesity they’d be telling kids, “Turn this crap off and go outside and get some sunshine and fresh air.”
The whole thing started when that fruitcake Elmo came on board. Trust me.
I am afraid it started before that Moriarty, Elmo is but a symptom, not the cause. Even if he is a little freak.