Who was your favorite character on Sesame Street?

This is a tough question. At least for me it is. I mean, at one point I totally loved cookie monster. I related to his fanatical desire for cookies, you know? It's one of the reasons I don't keep cookies in the house. I love them, don't get me wrong, but I think that my love for cookies may be a little on the obsessive side. It's more than difficult for me to have just one cookie, especially if chocolate is involved in anyway. And forget about Oreos - even the generic hydronated chocolate wafer cookies that are similar, but not quite the same. I love to have a tall glass of milk and alternate from twisting them open and licking out the insides, dipping the plain chocolate wafer into the milk to eating the cookie in two bites and washing it down with two or three delicious gulps of milk. Ah, satisfaction to the max! Like I said, cookies don't stand a chance in my home. I have no self control. So, as you can see, I can completely relate to the Cookie Monster's motivation: his love of cookies.

Of course, after having my son and discovering I can mimic the Elmo voice (yeah, i know, creepy) and then, after watching the cute little bugger, I fell in love with him. He was just so terminally cute with that voice and genuine concern for people, his desire to please and often hitting the mark. I couldn't help it. Plus, it really helped that it seemed as though he was just pulling everyone's leg with the whole cutsie routine. I think anything that is that cute with that kind of voice has to be pulling some kind of sham. It's not a far stretch for my imagination to invision Elmo strapped to the nines, smoking a cigarrette and nursing a bottle of whiskey, sans glass. Of course my minds eye sees all of this as the "private" Elmo, as if he does this behind the scenes, but when he's on TV he shows his usual over-elated, high voiced, sweet little self. For some reason, I really dig this dual personality I've given to the Sesame Street character. I refuse to believe he's all sugary sweet. No one is. Except, I suppose, the fictional characters we create. So, I guess Elmo could be all good and no bad. Only, that supposition really creeps me out. More than my "talent" of not only talking with an Elmo voice, but also using his vocabulary and grammer.

My third contemplation is Ernie. He definitely has charm. I can relate to his personality in many ways, right down to the laugh. See, since I was a little girl I have often laughed Ernie's laugh. This is not a concious thing at all. In fact, I really don't know where it comes from or why I do it. In fact, it's a bit embarrassing. Here I am trying to be graceful, sophisticated, lovely, adorable, lady-like when someone says or does something funnier than all get out and I laugh so hard I start making this sound like a snort, but it's from the back of my throat. No, milk does not usually come out of my nose. Although there was this one time... but I digress. Let's just say it's definitely a talent I wish I did not have. The good news is that I am not alone: I have heard one other person do it, besides Ernie. Unfortunately I cannot direct you to them as I have lost contact with them.

Of course, Ernie's laugh is not the only reason to love this well-known puppet. He has charm, a simple sense of humor, and a desire to be good, although he unfortunately fails, and pretty continuously at that, to meet the expections of his room-mate, Bert. In a nutshell, that's me. I don't seem to have a problem charming people, my humor is still stuck on word play and simple children's jokes, and I want so badly to be a good girl, only find myself short of the goal. So, I guess it's a fair assessment to say that Ernie is my favorite. Simply because I get him, or, rather, I get the puppet's "character". *

So, who's your favorite Sesame Street character?

*Just a side note: I know Ernie's not a real person. None of these characters are real people, but for some reason, as I sit here typing up this little blurb, I find myself writing as though they are real. And I guess that's what really puts Ernie in the forefront of all the characters. His foibles, his silly laugh, his simply sweet sense of humor, his love for his rubber ducky... If I didn't know better I'd say he's real!