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I am starting a Sunday evening weekly roundup post. Each Sunday I will do a post about things that happened during the week that I found interesting. Some days I do not blog because, honestly dear reader, I do not feel I have much to say. Between school, work and my budding relationship I am finding my mind and interests are elsewhere.

A few posts back I wrote about my favorite podcasts with many of you writing me about yours. I want to thank you as I found some new favorites. I listened to a lot of them this week at work and at home. Today I was listening to Wait Wait Don’t Tell me, the NPR news quiz program. The funniest podcast line of the week came from the show. The host was talking about the movie New Moon and offered this gem “these people are not vampires; they are out of work Abercrombie and Fitch models”. I laughed hard because it is so true. What would Bella do if she came across a real vampire? After all, she is no Sookie Stackhouse.

This week Sara Palin’s book Going Rogue came out. She is doing a book signing in here in Reno at our Costco! Guess it is true, you can find bulk BS in Costco. Thankfully Stephen King’s Under the Dome came out, giving the book buzz back to a real writer.
I was reading about the re-start up of the Hadron Collider when this caught my eye “The nuclear physicists working on it were surprised at how quickly they got beams of protons whizzing through the 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel underground late Friday.” Seriously? A 10 billion dollar machine and the scientist are surprised about how well it works? Did they think they would have to hit it with a hammer to get it going?

Earlier this week I had a heated discussion with some women who feel vaccinating children is wrong because of their fear of injecting chemicals into children. But apparently they have no problem feeding their children preservatives, sugar and food laced with pesticides. How do you argue with that logic? I tried but failed. I guess they feel it okay if they fill the children with chemicals but not someone else.

We had our first winter snow fall on Friday. They (who are they, does anyone know?) that we would get at least 6 inches, we got about 5 minutes. I love the snow, it forces me to bundle up and read. This week I finished Between a Bridge and a River by Craig Ferguson. I fell in love with his comic style and hope to read more by him. I also finished Sir Gwain and the Green Knight. I know, I know I should have reviewed it, and I will, now that I got all this off my chest.

So dear reader, what is on your mind?

If you are my age (45) or so then you were lucky enough to watch Sesame Street the early years. I have fond memories of Kermit and the gang teaching me about letters, words and relationships. Now 40 years later it seems the early years of the show are being viewed as evil propaganda, promoting smoking, over eating and civil disobedience. The early years are now available on DVD with a label that says “for adults only”. Are they serious? What is going on?

Last Thursday National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation aired a segment about Sesame Street’s anniversary by bringing in columnist Dale Hrabi of The Week to talk about his article Top 10 Sesame Street Controversies. I don’t know about you but the only controversy I ever heard connected to Sesame Street was the ugly stupid rumor that Bert and Ernie are gay. As a child who grew up watching a lot of television I made the connection between Bert and Ernie and Felix and Oscar from the Odd Couple. Both shows depicted two polar opposites as best friends living together. I never thought it weird that two male puppets would live together. What I saw was that it was okay to be friends with people who thought and acted different from me. I do make a connection between when the idea was first mentioned and the decade it came from. In the early 80’s Aids brought homosexuality out of the closet and into our news cycle. As more and more uptight people were forced to confront their worst fears (there are gays in America!) the more outrages their accusations became. Sesame Street took a hit as Bert and Ernie’s “lifestyle” was questioned by those who wanted to push homosexual issues back in the closet. 20 some years later there are still hints by critics that these two friends are subversely teaching our children it is okay to be gay.

Remember back in grade school when we had to line up for everything? Going into class, going to recess, going back to class from recess and going to and from the cafeteria. The first three years of school seemed to be an endless line to somewhere. There was always that one person who hated to be the last in line; that person was constantly racing to be first, trying to shove his way into the middle of the line and whining when he failed. Sesame Street tackled this subject when Grover learned from a hippie how to stand in line and not complain about being last. Did you know actually this was a way for the producers of Sesame Street to teach pre-schoolers the art of civil disobedience? Neither did I! I wish I did, because as we all know there is no powerful a voice than 6 year olds when they line up and start protesting! My friends and I could have protests the awful cafeteria food or the fact that we had to stand in line all the time. What wasted years!

Cookie Monster’s pipe was taken away in the 80’s as it seems he was not only over eating but also smoking! Yes that bubble blowing fiend was teaching us that smoking was cool; I tend to think it was all the adults including doctors who taught us that. When I was a child I knew Cookie Monster was imitating Alistair Cooke, the host of Masterpiece Theater, how did I know this? Because Cookie Monster hosted Monsterpiece Theater! I never thought Cookie was smoking; even as a child I understood the difference between smoke and bubbles. What Cookie monster did teach me was that Masterpiece Theater was a great program (okay I learned that later, but I did know about the show from Cookie).

I do not understand why adults have to find fault in children’s programming. Sesame Street is not the only show to have controversy attached to it. Barney had a lot of angry parents lash out at his show and the merchandising that went along with it. The Teletubbies were outed by Jerry Farwell who thought Tinky Winky was homosexual (what is it with these people and gay puppets?) because he carried a purse. I bet the children who watched this show never batted an eye at Tinky’s choice of bling.

I could bemoan the fact that my favorite childhood show is mired in controversy but I am not. I am going to purchase a copy of the early Sesame Street years, get out some cookies and a bubble blower and watch the show as it was meant to be watched; with child like glee and wonderment. I hope, dear reader you do the same.