HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: karenr@athena.mit.edu (Karen P Rothkin)
Subject: Re: Ernie
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:03:24 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.190501.18981@news.media.mit.edu> tsmaster@media.mit.edu (David LeCompte) writes:
>In article <15164@umd5.umd.edu> walrus@bessel.umd.edu (Grig Larson) writes:
>>Has the cookie monster consulted a dietitic physician for his cumpulsory
>>sugar attacks? Is he a borderline diabetic?
>
>I don't really think that he has a dietary problem; how many calories
>can you get out of cookies that you munch up and let fall out of the
>corners of your mouth?
>

Sounds like Bulimia to me -- he binges and purges simultaneously,  and
since we all know that after a while it is no longer voluntary,
perhaps he needs help.  Maybe that is why his skin appears to just
hang off him...

>>After literally 1000's of letters, Sunfflupagus <sp?>, was not made invisibe.
>                                                            made not
>>Apparently, some kids were really getting retentive about poor big-bird's
>>"imaginary friend" who just left before some human arrived, and then dis-
>>believed him. I remember being one of those kids...
>

Me too!  I just hated Snuffy for doing this to BB,  and couldn't
understand why anyone would like to have a friend like that.  His
excuses were always so lame too...


>I understood (from an article in a local PBS magazine, I think...) that
>the decision was made because of child abuse. I think that the reasoning
>sorta went like: Well, Bob & Susan don't believe in Mr. S; why would
>anyone believe me when I said that Father/Mother/Uncle/Friend did this
>to me?
>

Well,  this is a great reason as well.  It is really the same as above
though.  This would make Sesame Street the first show to dealk with
this issue seriously

Cheers -- Karen



Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: wgatherg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (William Gathergood)
Subject: Earnie
Summary: why some don't appear together
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 21:18:53 GMT


Someone asked why Kermit and Earnie don't appear together.  It should be 
obvious that, since Jim Henson strongly believed in the concept of each 
puppeteer doing his own voice live, it would be hard for him to operate both 
Kermit and Earnie at the same time.

They also asked why Earnie and Bert could see Sesame street, but were never out
there.  The answer to this is even more interesting.  Earnie and Bert's 
basement apartment was, for years, in London.  From the time Henson moved to 
London to work on the Muppet Show T.V. series and Dark Crystal in the Pinewood 
Studios outside London, he did all of the Earnie/Bert and Kermit/Grover 
segments in London and shipped them back to New York where they were edited 
into the rest of the show, which was produced there.  So you almost never saw 
Kermit or Earnie on Sesame street.  They were always on separate sets and never
mixed with the live people or the New York Muppets, which included Oscar and 
Big Bird, etc.  It was only on rare visits to New York that they threw the 
groups together, or cameo appearances in the movies when they flew BB and Oscar
over to London.  I think, during the London years, Henson was contracted to 
produce 15 minutes of material per Sesame Street episode.  If you time the 
Henson/Oz bits in any one show, you come up with about 15 minutes every time.

wgatherg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
From: walrus@bessel.umd.edu (Grig Larson)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Subject: Re: Ernie
Date: 27 Aug 92 17:21:02 GMT
Organization: Punkadyne Industries(tm)

In article <1992Aug26.052243.976@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> ren@Turing.ORG (Karen Prestemon) writes:
>In article <1992Aug25.164436.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu> jtulli@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
>>i heard the same rumor--that Jim Henson had in his will or something that when
>>he died he wanted one of his muppets to die.
>>i also heard that parents were complaining about ernie and bert sharing the
>>same bedroom because they were afraid of the "implications" that ernie and bert
>>were gay and that it would mess up their children (*sheesh*) or something.
>>is this true.  (and is that the reason that in the earlier episodes they shared
>>a bed but then later on the had twin beds??)
>>
>>thanks in advance,
>>
>>Jude
>
>
>My husband's big joke is that Ernie and Bert are a gay, interracial couple.
>Are they *supposed* to be brothers or roommates, or what?  or is the situation
>ambiguous on purpose?  I have always wondered about this!
>
>--Karen



About Bert and Ernie:
I always thought of them as two retarted gay people who managed
to rise from society's awful judgemental claws, and etched a cozy nitche for
themselves in a pre-war basement aprtment in a neighborhood that accepted 
fuzzy mutants, giant birds, and an awful lot of unsupervised children as 
normal. Surely, they wouldn't stand out.
 
Has the cookie monster consulted a dietitic physician for his cumpulsory
sugar attacks? Is he a borderline diabetic?
 
Oscar might well benifit from the works of Norman Vincent Peale and learn to
accept himself with self-love. No longer will he have to pretend to make
himself "awful" to cover up his true feelings of self-worth.
 
Is big bird retarted? Is he a youth of some much larger species? I shudder
at the thought of a full-grown species of him.

Some True Sesame Street facts:
I forgot the guy's name on the show <he was the black guy with buggy eyes
and a huge 'fro>, but he was fired after running nude in new York, saying
"You can't arrest me! I'm <his name> on Sesame Street!"

After literally 1000's of letters, Sunfflupagus <sp?>, was not made invisibe.
Apparently, some kids were really getting retentive about poor big-bird's
"imaginary friend" who just left before some human arrived, and then dis-
believed him. I remember being one of those kids...


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|\||/ A Punkie (tm) | 
|(o-) Qickie-.sig!  |
| /\                |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
walrus@bessel.umd.edu
From: np0z+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ngeng Hia Phua)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Subject: Re: Ernie
Date: 30 Aug 92 16:00:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.4ecD2te00VAuQ1V1Y1
	<15164@umd5.umd.edu>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

> Some True Sesame Street facts:
> I forgot the guy's name on the show <he was the black guy
> with buggy eyes and a huge 'fro>, but he was fired after running
> nude in new York, saying "You can't arrest me! I'm <his name>
> on Sesame Street!"

That was David (Northern Calloway).   

<possibly more rumour-mongering>
Is it true that he commited suicide?  How did the producers explain his
departure from Sesame Street?

hia
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: shabby@Athena.MIT.EDU (Chris Shabsin)
Subject: Re: Swedish Chef
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	<1992Aug24.150749.89870@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
	<182ejqINNb00@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
	<Sep03.030919.69461@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 20:56:25 GMT

ssomehow Mir vor shmeer sounds more accurate than Yorn desh born...
--
-Chris Shabsin
-shabby@athena.mit.edu
-member, SIPB, PWLCSBHNM, MITMB, VWA, MITCC, PWN
-founder, Gations, Inc.
-"You got the power, you got the might, get ready for battle, beat
	that Black Knight!"
					-Black Knight pinball game...
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: wkm1@nestor.uucp (24102-messer)
Subject: lydia the tattooed lady
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 18:42:41 GMT
Keywords: lydia

hi,
someone in rec.humor has been asking for the lyrics to lydia, the tattooed
lady....it was suggested that he ask here...

i'd also like them...if someone knows the words, could you please
post?

thanks,

Wendy Messer
From: tsmaster@media.mit.edu (David LeCompte)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Subject: Re: Ernie
Date: 2 Sep 92 23:59:01 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

In article <SOLENSKY.92Sep2003226@world.std.com> solensky@world.std.com (Frank T Solensky) writes:
>In article <1992Aug27.030645.5593@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jblackwo@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (J P Blackwood) writes:
>At the risk of posing a straight question:  anyone know how their names were
>picked?  I've got a theory that it's based on two of the supporting characters
>in "It's a Wonderful Life", but I've heard a counter-suggestion recently that
>seemed feasible also: old Piels beer ads had two cartoon characters with
>the same names -- Bob & Ray did their voices..
I don't know for sure, but I have heard from many diverse sources
(followups to a.f.u.?) that the "It's a Wonnaful Life" source is
correct.

-- 
Your Mom!       The Carburator!         |I'm not paid to HAVE opinions.
Your Shoes!     A gardenhose!           |
You got to got to got to got to ...     |This sig can be yours; send $15 to
SCUD MISSILE!!!	-"Scud Missile", Grunge |tsmaster@athena.mit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: angelai@wam.umd.edu (Angela I.)
Subject: Re: Ernie
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 17:34:55 GMT

In article <BtKt2M.MB1@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> lrfox@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (linda ream fox) writes:
>NO, Ernie is not dead!  This is a rumor being spread around--it's on the order
>of "worms in McDonald's Hamburgers"; "Proctor and Gamble is run by Satanists"
>and "Paul McCartney is Dead"...
>  However, no new Ernie episodes will be made.
>
>    LRFox
>.
>


Yeah, and that rumor about Elvis is starting to annoy me too! :)

Actually, more Ernie episodes have been and will be made, according to
a muppeteer I spoke to a few weeks ago (Buz Suraci).  It was my understanding
(and I forgot to ask Buz, I wish I had) that Bert-Ernie sketches may not
be made (the new ones are just Ernie) and that's only because Frank Oz
was reluctant to do them without Jim.


Angela
From: dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu (David N. Blank-Edelman)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Subject: Re: Ernie
Date: 27 Aug 92 21:33:40 GMT
	<1992Aug24.233055.21881@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
	<BtKt2M.MB1@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <UeauHSq00WBNQ362Yw@andrew.cmu.edu>
Organization: M.I.T. Media Laboratory

> I hope you're wrong about this, and I wonder why you think so.
> Ernie's voice is nearly identical to Kermit's.  So if there are new
> Kermit skits, why not new Ernie and Bert skits?

I believe Frank Oz (soul of Bert) has gone on record as saying he
wouldn't play Bert to anyone else's Ernie.  I appreciate that gesture.
       Peace,
          dNb
--

 David N. Blank-Edelman              o/    \  /    \ /     /      \o   
 M.I.T. Media Laboratory            /#      ##o     #     o##      #\
 E15-473F, (617) 253-2169           / \    /  \    /o\    / |\    / \
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: tsmaster@media.mit.edu (David LeCompte)
Subject: Re: Ernie
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 19:05:01 GMT

In article <15164@umd5.umd.edu> walrus@bessel.umd.edu (Grig Larson) writes:
>Has the cookie monster consulted a dietitic physician for his cumpulsory
>sugar attacks? Is he a borderline diabetic?

I don't really think that he has a dietary problem; how many calories
can you get out of cookies that you munch up and let fall out of the
corners of your mouth?

>After literally 1000's of letters, Sunfflupagus <sp?>, was not made invisibe.
                                                            made not
>Apparently, some kids were really getting retentive about poor big-bird's
>"imaginary friend" who just left before some human arrived, and then dis-
>believed him. I remember being one of those kids...


I understood (from an article in a local PBS magazine, I think...) that
the decision was made because of child abuse. I think that the reasoning
sorta went like: Well, Bob & Susan don't believe in Mr. S; why would
anyone believe me when I said that Father/Mother/Uncle/Friend did this
to me?


			whoa, that's a dark topic for this group.

					-Dave


-- 
Your Mom!       The Carburator!         |I'm not paid to HAVE opinions.
Your Shoes!     A gardenhose!           |
You got to got to got to got to ...     |This sig can be yours; send $15 to
SCUD MISSILE!!!	-"Scud Missile", Grunge |tsmaster@athena.mit.edu
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.tv,alt.tv.muppets
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 13:16:37 -0400 
From: Elliott Conan Evans <ee0r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Muppet news flash...

         The first issue of MUPPETZine, a fanzine about the Muppets and Jim 
 Henson, is now available.  The zine contains news, articles and opinions, and 
 the first issue is free.  Write to Danny Horn at 72630.2263@compuserve.com or 
 at 4708 Springfield Avenue, Philadelphia PA, 19143-3515.  The zine covers all 
 the Henson shows and movies, including The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, 
 Dinosaurs and Dog City.  Ask and it shall be yours.
 
                   Love Danny.

------
Eeyore
"Hey baby, wanna see my Codex Seraphinianus?"
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: s1082919@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au (T Hankinson is GUMBY)
Subject: Re: Elmo for President
Organization: Monash University College Gippsland, Churchill 3842, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 06:12:58 GMT

In article <92244.092858JOHNZ@UCF1VM.BITNET> <JOHNZ@UCF1VM.BITNET> writes:
>////////////// Elmo The Fuzzy Red Moster for President \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Grover for Vice President               //////////////////////
>
>This Message Sponsored by the Elmo/Grover 1992 Presidential Campaign :)
>
><The University of Central Florida will deny JOHNZ and any Idea he may pretend
> to have. Therefore, any ramblings are his own responsibility>

  You might be happy to now that Elmo made a cameo appearance on some America
  sitcom called the Torkelsons, why Elmo for president, that voice of his just
  wouldn't cut it in a peace summit ( more likely to aggervate and cause war ).



 **************************************************************************
 *       Templar Hankinson      s1082919@giaec.cc.monash.edu.au           *
 *                                                                        *
 *    Penguin : ... Just the PUSSY I was looking for.                     *
 *                  ( From the movie Batman Returns )                     *
 **************************************************************************
From: rbrown@cs.cornell.edu (Russell Brown)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Subject: Re: lydia the tattooed lady
Keywords: lydia
Date: 3 Sep 92 02:32:12 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853

In article <1992Sep2.184241.13956@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> wkm1@nestor.uucp (24102-messer) writes:
>hi,
>someone in rec.humor has been asking for the lyrics to lydia, the tattooed
>lady....it was suggested that he ask here...
>
>i'd also like them...if someone knows the words, could you please
>post?
>
>thanks,
>
>Wendy Messer
>

Here we have it:

	Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
	Lydia the Tattooed Lady?
	She has eyes that folks adore so,
	And a torso, even more so.
	Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopydia,     <-- pronounce encyclopedia so
	Oh, Lydia the queen of tattoos.             it rhymes with Lydia.
	On her back is the Battle of Waterloo;
	Beside it, the wreck of the Hesperus II.
	And proudly above stands the red, white, and blue.
	You can learn a lot from Lydia.

	She can give you a view of the world in tattoo,
	If you'll step up and tell her where.
	For a dime you can see Kankikee or Paree,
	Or Washington crossing the Delaware.

	Lydia, oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia?
	Lydia the Tattooed Lady?
	When her muscles start relaxing,
	Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson.
	Lydia, oh, Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
	Oh, Lydia the queen of them all?
	She once swept an admiral clear off his feet.
	The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
	And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,
	For he went and married Lydia.

This is pretty close to right, anyway.  Some of the Lydia, oh Lydia lines may
not be quite right, and how do you spell Kankikee, anyway?

					cheers,
					Russell
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: sprooney@unix1.tcd.ie (Simon Rooney)
Subject: Re: Earnie
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:51:06 GMT


>They also asked why Earnie and Bert could see Sesame street, but were never out
>there.  The answer to this is even more interesting.  Earnie and Bert's 
>basement apartment was, for years, in London.  From the time Henson moved to 
>London to work on the Muppet Show T.V. series and Dark Crystal in the Pinewood 
>Studios outside London, he did all of the Earnie/Bert and Kermit/Grover 
>segments in London and shipped them back to New York where they were edited 
>into the rest of the show, which was produced there.  So you almost never saw 
>Kermit or Earnie on Sesame street.  They were always on separate sets and never
>mixed with the live people or the New York Muppets, which included Oscar and 
>Big Bird, etc.  It was only on rare visits to New York that they threw the 
>groups together, or cameo appearances in the movies when they flew BB and Oscar
>over to London.  I think, during the London years, Henson was contracted to 
>produce 15 minutes of material per Sesame Street episode.  If you time the 
>Henson/Oz bits in any one show, you come up with about 15 minutes every time.

WOW! You learn summat new every day. This leads to the question were
any other muppets non-US? Esp. The Count (probably one of my
favourites... remember when he got caught in the rain on a date?
Classic.) The thing is that The Count was in quite a few E&B
episodes that I remember. There were rarely any others that visited
them though. When did E&B move to the US also?

SMNoi

>wgatherg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Organization: Senior, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 09:51:51 -0400 
From: Jason Lee Smith <js06+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Ernie
	<1992Aug29.020324.18472@athena.mit.edu>

Concerning Cookie Monster:

He is neither a diabetic or a bullimic (sic), he's got a rare eating
disorder whereby your esophogas (also sic) gets sealed up with a black
piece of felt. 

No wonder he's always hungry.



		Jason
Organization: Junior, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 10:10:09 -0400 
From: Jason Lee Smith <js06+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Ernie
	<1992Aug26.052243.976@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>

	Oh come on, Ernie and Bert are not gay, and Ernie is not dead. If you
must know they're communist agents sent to infiltrate Sesame Street. Its
true. In the height of the cold-war the Soviets became envious of our
Puppet-making technology. They used their own crude technology to
manufacture two puppets, Ernie and Bert, which they sent to America to
spy on the rest of Jim Hensen's merry little band of Muppets. They were,
however, under strict orders not to fraternize too closely with the
other members of the cast, for fear that they would get corrupted by the
cheap thrills and fast times of being a famous puppet. This explains,
why they were almost never shown in skits which included any other
characters.
	The nasal twang with which Bert's speaks betrays him as a non-American
to any trained Linguist worth his (or her) salt. It is actually the
unmistakeable accent of one born and bred in East-Moscow. Ernie's
squeaky laugh and goofy good humor betray  him as a resident of the
Ukraine.
	The fact that Ernie and Bert are spies also explain why Bert is so fond
of pigeons. They are not ordinary pigeons that he is fond of, no, they
are special Russian puppet carrier pigeons which he uses to send
messages back to the homeland. And Ernie's "rubber duckie"is actually a
cleverly disguised snub-nosed Browning 38 with which he deals with
people who get too close to his sinister secret.
	Do think it was any accident that Jim Henson's death occured so close
to the collapse of the Soviet empire. Do you think that its any accident
that Bert's dance "Doin' the Pigeon" is almost identical to the marching
style of members of the Red Army -- which, itself, is almost identical
to the Nazi goosestep!
	These are all true facts, you understand. Since the Soviet collapse
Ernie has gone underground, while Bert remains a contact man on the
outside. Who knows what evil schemes these two are concocting as we sit
here, having pointless debates about the sexual leanings of pieces of
felt and foam rubber.

		Jason
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: tsmaster@media.mit.edu (David LeCompte)
Subject: Re: Rainbow Connection
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 18:58:42 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.161109.23242@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com> lmhall@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com writes:
>In article <Du23PB1w164w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> scotc.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu writes:
>                          .....  I have seen a Muppet songbook, but I am
>>trying to avoid buying it.  .....
>
>Could you post the title and publisher?  I'd love to buy it!
>   Laura
>--
>Laura Hall   IBM PSP, Palo Alto   lmhall@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com   (415) 855-4473
>standard disclaimer: this posting doesn't represent official IBM policy
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^       

Hmmm... if only it did... :) :) :)

I think that the songbook was called _The Sesame Street Songbook_. I can
find out authors (Joe Raposo & Lorenzo Music ???) and ISBN numbers
sometime, if noone else beats me to it.

-- 
Your Mom!       The Carburator!         |I'm not paid to HAVE opinions.
Your Shoes!     A gardenhose!           |
You got to got to got to got to ...     |This sig can be yours; send $15 to
SCUD MISSILE!!!	-"Scud Missile", Grunge |tsmaster@athena.mit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: shabby@Athena.MIT.EDU (Chris Shabsin)
Subject: Re: Swedish Chef
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 09:09:11 GMT

Someone please send the Swedish chef's song to this newsgroup and
email to me (shabby@athena.mit.edu) too, please?  I think it should at
least be posted by someone who knows...

of course it's late and I'm babbling, but I never even thought to ask
if anyone had the words to that song...

-Chris
--
-Chris Shabsin
-sig under construction
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: jblackwo@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (J P Blackwood)
Subject: Re: Ernie
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 03:06:45 GMT

Many mysteries surround Bert and Ernie?

They can see Sesame street but never are seen out threr.

Do they have jobs?

Are they adults for that matter?

I think they may be college students.

How come you never see Ernie and Kermit together??
Newsgroups: alt.tv.muppets
From: dave@admiral.uucp (Dave Litchman)
Subject: Re: Ernie
Organization: The Admiral's Unix System & The Grid BBS
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 03:59:13 GMT

In article <Yebs3rS00awNM0zFMB@andrew.cmu.edu> Jason Lee Smith <js06+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>Concerning Cookie Monster:
>
>He is neither a diabetic or a bullimic (sic), he's got a rare eating
>disorder whereby your esophogas (also sic) gets sealed up with a black
>piece of felt. 

Anybody else ever see the old Mad Magazine (I think) parody of Sesame Street?
There's one part where Ernie goes berserk and cuts a hole at the back of
Cookie's mouth so he can finally eat those darn cookies!


-- 
"Dammit Jim, I'm a free man, not a number!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ray, when somebody asks you if you're a god, you say YES!" -- Winston Zeddmore