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November 12, 2009

Anonymous The Tonawanda News Thu Nov 12, 2009, 12:20 AM EST

There’s nothing like sitting down to write a column and ... nothing.

Elections are over for another year — thank God — and others write about politics better than I, anyway. It tends to just give me a headache. I voted. I hope you did, too. ‘Nuff said.

I’ve said what I want to say about health care. It’s broken. It needs to be fixed. How should we do that? Who knows?

Same thing for the recession.

The Bills and Sabres ... eh, I’ve been a fan for years; I’ll continue to be a fan. The ups and downs don’t trouble me as much as they used to.

I scan the news wires each day and it’s gloom and doom and shootings and tragedy ... and someone has to write about it, but given the choice, I’m not going to do it. Not today, anyway.

What do I think about these days?

Well, I have the theme music for “Elmo’s World” stuck in my head right now. Does that count?

I see a lot of Elmo these days. My 5-year-old is obsessed with him. My 1-year-old thinks he’s kind of neat, too.

I’m not so impressed. I remember the days before Mr. Fuzzy-and-Red. My heart will always belong to Cookie Monster, bad grammar and all. (And that’s the only time I will say that, ever.)

Now, before you e-mail me in all caps, my children don’t watch a lot of television. In fact, they barely watch TV at all. But when they do, it’s “Sesame Street.”

And that’s OK with me.

Unless you’re been hiding under a rock, you’ll know that “Sesame Street” turned 40 this week. It’s older than I am. I remember growing up with it, actually, back in the days when PBS and the Big Three networks were the only game in town. I can’t remember a time without Kermit and Big Bird in my life, even if not in the forefront.

And now that I have children ... well, they’re back with a vengeance.

You know those songs you remember from your childhood? They’re going to be amplified 100 percent when your kids (or your grandkids!) start singing them. They will get stuck in your head and never, ever leave.

I can handle that. After all, I give partial credit to “Sesame Street” for the fact that my son belts out his ABCs at an age when I thought that wouldn’t be possible. And sometimes, he gets to see kids just like him — kids of all colors and shapes and sizes, and, yes, kids with Down Syndrome. “Sesame Street” was one of the first, maybe the first, TV show to embrace the inclusion idea.

Is “Sesame Street” cool these days, at least with anyone not in the under-6 set? Probably not. I’ve rarely liked things that are cool.

I hope it sticks around for another 40 years. I hope I watch my grandkids watching it ... even if it means another 40 years of “La la la la! Elmo’s world!” stuck in my head.

We could all use more sunny days.

Jill Keppeler is a page designer for the Tonawanda News. She can be reached at jill.keppeler@tonawanda-news.com.

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