Palate Cleanser: About Sesame Street

Web-Only Edition

Why A Web-Only Edition?

Very few of us have any real interest, at the moment, in anything other than the assassination attempt on President Trump. However, it is good to pause in the middle of crisis, stop doom-scrolling, and think about other things, even briefly.

I personally experienced serious PTSD-related disassociative symptoms yesterday; I forgot to drink anything for almost twelve hours. It’s a good idea to consciously step away from the darkness.

So this is a palate cleanser to share something small that’s making me happy lately. This is not going to be published to email; I’m only putting it on the web and dropping the link into Notes.

About Sesame Street

My childhood was nightmarishly grim in many ways. Sesame Street provided an astonishing respite for me, one that was powerfully good and helpful. It was always on TV. We couldn’t afford cable or a DVD player, so PBS was it, and they played reruns of Sesame Street a lot. At least, in my memory they did; I remember many instances of being told “Go watch Sesame Street,” which I understood to mean something like “Go away, you’re annoying.” And I remember many, many happy hours watching Sesame Street.

I’ve got a project going on related to Sesame Street, which I will share with you here. But first, a bit more context.

My favorite characters are Count Von Count, Elmo, and Oscar the Grouch, in that order.

Count Von Count

No surprise that the Count is my favorite character, as he is obsessed with numbers, and so am I.

The Count has, as vampires are traditionally believed to have, a bad case of arithmomania: a compulsion to count. That means that if you’re afraid of attack by vampire, your best bet is not a crucifix. It’s a handful of rice. Throw it, and the vampire will be compelled to stop and count the grains, giving you time to escape.

As he is obsessed with numbers, naturally Count Von Count is my favorite character. Here is one of his songs: warning, it’s incredibly catchy and will stick in your mind for the rest of the day.

I also love Count Von Count’s gothic aesthetic. I’m somehing of a goth girl myself, or would be if I put more effort into my appearance. But I love nearly all things goth. In fact, I’m working on a present goal of getting good enough at painting to have a personal Halloween clock done by October, and more gothic-themed clocks in general for my apartment after that one. I especially love the way goth aesthetic allow for both cute and creepy/scary.

Goth bona fides: my Halloween tree, which I put up a week ago because I’m an adult and it’s my house.

Yes, it’s July. Yes, my Halloween tree is up.

Another Count Von Count video:

And the Count’s lovely Twitter feed, in which all he does is count his tweets!

Elmo

Elmo is a furry red monster who is meant to be about 3 and a half years old. I have loved Elmo from the first time I saw him until this very moment, and likely always will. When Elmo looks into the camera and says, “Elmo loves you!” some part of me, God help me, truly believes it.

Here is Elmo singing Elmo’s song, and sharing it with his friends:

Oscar the Grouch

Oscar the Grouch was designed to help teach children to deal with negative emotions. I was pretty well convinced, as a kid, that I was inherently bad. And that made me love the character who was defiantly proud of his negative emotions.

Here’s Oscar singing “I Love Trash”:

as well as the Grouch Anthem:

My Project

I give myself a budget to give myself a gift once a month. I had saved it for awhile when I had a significant dream, related to some stuff in my early childhood that I’ve been working on in therapy.

As a consequence of the dream, I went online to look up some Sesame Street photos, looking for something in particular from Sesame Street that I thought I remembered.

And there I found a Sesame Street LEGO set!

It is perfect in almost every way, with wonderful details. Its one and only flaw is that has only a picture of Count Von Count, not a figure, but I have ordered a Count Von Count figure from an online memorabilia shop, that I think will be about the right size.

I finished it while doomscrolling yesterday. It was nice to have something to keep my hands busy.

I absolutely love it. Here are my pictures. Enjoy!

See the portrait of Count Von Count in the background?

Someday I will write about how much Big Bird’s teddy bear meant to me as a kid (I didn’t have any stuffed animals).

Elmo’s bedroom.

Bert and Ernie’s shared room.

Ernie’s rubber ducky!

There’s a tire, a green recycling bag, and a pizza box in the recycling bin next to Oscar’s trash can.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the stats and may put out more web-only editions if this one is enjoyed.

Thanks for reading and sharing my project!

Also to help me with stats: if this makes you go ahead and get a paid sub, use this link for a discount.