Cookie Monster cuts back on his favourite food

Last Updated Fri, 08 Apr 2005 19:22:37 EDT
CBC Arts

NEW YORK - Cookie Monster, the blue-furred Muppet known for his voracious appetite, will be eating less of his favourite food in the coming season.

The change in Cookie Monster's diet is part of a new focus on television's Sesame Street, one that will stress healthy eating habits for children.

Cookie Monster is famous for scarfing down cookies by the plateful. He is so enamoured of cookies that he has been known to burst into song, chanting in his throaty voice, "'C' is for cookie, that's good enough for me."

Now that Sesame Street is in its 36th season, which kicked off this week, he will be singing a different tune – called Cookies Are a Sometimes Food.

The song will preach restraint, telling children that some foods can be eaten "anytime," while others – like cookies – should be eaten only "sometimes."

Each new episode of Sesame Street will also open with a health tip for kids about nutrition or exercise.

Guest stars, like singer Alicia Keys and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, will talk about the same topics.

New characters will be featured, including talking eggplants and carrots. The segment American Fruit Stand will parody American Bandstand.

The makers of Sesame Street stress, however, that despite the changes, Cookie Monster will not be mending his ways entirely.

"We are not putting him on a diet," Rosemarie Truglio, the show's vice-president of research and education, told the Associated Press. "And we would never take the position of 'no sugar.' We're teaching him moderation."

According to Truglio, Cookie Monster will continue to scarf down cookies, although they may be a healthier variety than his favourite kind, chocolate chip. He will also eat the occasional non-cookie object.

In addition, Cookie Monster finishes the Sometimes song by asking insistently, "Is sometimes now?"

He's still Cookie Monster, Truglio explained.

On this day in 1895, Oscar Wilde was arrested for sodomy after failing to prove his case of libel against the Marquis of Queensbury. The Marquis had accused Wilde of having an affair with his son. In custody, Wilde complained, "If this is how Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, then she doesn't deserve to have any."

I hope the next Pope will be more progressive than John Paul II was. Although he did some good things--such as reaching out to Jews and Muslims--he did a great deal of damage with his extremely conservative views on topics such as women's role in the church, contraception (especially by discouraging people in AIDS-ravaged African countries from using condoms), and homosexuality.