Happy Birthday to Sesame Street!

Sesame Street turns 40 today.  It is hard to believe that it’s been around that long.  I have many fond memories growing up watching Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and, of course, my personal favorite: Grover.  I even had a had a stuffed Grover that I took with me everywhere (and, unfortunately, suffered all kinds of kid-induced abuses).

Nowadays, it is my children who watch Sesame Street.  My parents, continuing a tradition, even purchased a stuffed Grover for NHL a few years back.  And while NHL might be growing too old to be interested in Sesame Street, JSL is just entering his prime Street years.  He already loves all of the characters, especially Cookie Monster.  He loves getting a cookie, saying "COOKIE" (with quite a good Cookie Monster imitation) and chowing down like Cookie Monster does.  Of course, this is all despite my repeated pleas to slow down his eating.  After all, Cookie Monster isn’t exactly a paragon of table manners.

Here’s wishing Sesame Street many more years decades of sunny days, sweeping the clouds away.  Here’s a small (and by no means complete) selection of my favorite Sesame Street moments.

Grover Serves Mr. Johnson:

 

Put Down The Duckie:

 

The Alligator King:

 

And, a more recent one, NPR Interviews Cookie Monster.  What are your favorite Sesame Street moments?

Vaccine Time

I’ve written before about the Sid The Science Kid on PBS.  Well, I was recently informed that Sid was going to have a special vaccination episode.  For children, vaccinations can be scary events.  Kids don’t always recognize that the small amount of pain now (from the needle stick) prevents a lot of suffering later (from the disease) and possibly even hospitalization/death.  Diseases that used to cause thousands of deaths a year just fifty years ago are rare today thanks to vaccinations.  Kids don’t see all this, though.  They just see an adult coming at them with a needle.  That’s why shows like Sid The Science Kid can be helpful.  If kids see their favorite TV characters getting a shot and being just fine, they’ll recognize that the shot won’t be that bad. Here’s a quick video of the Sid episode, airing this Monday, October 26th:

 

 

In related news, my employer just got in their supply of H1N1 vaccine so I’ll be headed down to Employee Health to get my jab.  Not just to keep myself from getting sick, mind you, but to also reduce the possibility that I will pass H1N1 on to NHL or JSL.  NHL and JSL will get their H1N1 shots when our doctor’s office gets their supply in.  I’d urge everyone to get their child vaccinated as soon as possible.  The more people who are vaccinated, the less victims the flu will claim.

EDIT: When I went down to get my shot, my Employee Health department told me that they aren’t giving them to people who don’t have direct patient contact.  This is a change from what they said before.  So I didn’t get my shot today, but I still plan on getting it as soon as possible.

Revision3’s Release Results In Roku Rumors

Yesterday, Revision3 announced that they will have a "channel" on Roku boxes. If you don’t already know, Roku is a small, $99 set top box that can play Netflix Instant Queue movies, Amazon VOD movies and even Major League Baseball games. Roku had promised 10 new channels announced by the end of the year. MLB was one of them. Blip.TV was a second. Revision3 becomes the third. However, during the video demonstration of Revision3 on Roku, I noticed something odd. Here’s a screen capture, tell me if you notice it too.  (Click the image to enlarge it.)

Did you notice the Pandora and Flickr channels?  If these are released, then you might soon be able to listen to your Pandora music and browse photos by family and friends via the Roku.  These would be channels four and five.  Add in a rumored YouTube channel and we might have six.  It remains to be seen what other channels will come up, but I for one am excited at the future prospects of Roku!

Aloha Friday: Revisiting the TV Shows of our Youth

Recently, NHL has discovered the wonder that is 80’s TV shows. I put The Super Mario Brothers Super Show and Inspector Gadget on the Roku and NHL just loved them. He loved cheering for Mario as he became “super” (complete with cheesy, oh-so-80’s rhyme: “Star light, star bright, give me pasta power, give me pasta might!”) and kicked King Koopa’s keister. Even more than that, though, he loved the antics of a certain bionic inspector, his neice and their dog. Even JSL got in on the fun, shouting “go go” when he saw Gadget coming on.

On the flip side, I decided to watch a favorite of mine when I was a kid: Voltron. I got through the first three episodes (the ones that introduce the team, Voltron, etc), but there were so many plot holes an inconsistencies that I just couldn’t continue. From everyone knowing so much about Voltron, yet claiming that it was something few knew, to the invaded planet having the keys to a powerful weapon (Voltron) yet not using them until the Galaxy Alliance pilots arrived. There definitely a nostaglia factor involved in my still liking it, but I have to admit that the show just wouldn’t stand up were it premiering today.

My Aloha Friday question is: What shows from your youth would you want to introduce your kids to? What shows from your youth might you steer them away from?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #9

Review: Sid the Science Kid

Hey Sid, What do you say! What do you want to learn today? I want to know what things happen and how, and I wanna know everything now. How does this thing work? Why does that stuff change? How’d it do what it just did. What’s up with the sky do you think i can fly The world is big and I wanna know why Got a lot of questions and big ideas, I’m Sid the Science Kid.

SSK_EP_131Rainy_131b.jpg

Those words begin one of NHL’s favorite shows: Sid the Science Kid. Sid constantly tries to figure out the big questions in life like: Why does a banana turn mushy? Or why does it need to rain when you have an outdoors activity planned? Those might not seem like big questions to adults, but to kids questions like these are huge. And for good reason too. Children are just figuring out how the world works and questions like these are key.

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