Jungian Shadow Puppets

The food pyramid has been redesigned once again. Large sections of the population apparently still haven't heard that high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods are less healthy than vegetables, exercise, and common sense.

Along those same lines, the puppet-crazed hippies that produce 'Sesame Street' have decided to give Cookie Monster a new song. Instead of 'C is for cookie / That's good enough for me' (a sentiment that, while unhealthy, also seems like an ode to a simpler, less materialistic age) the Cookie Monster's refrain will be changed to: 'A cookie is a sometimes food'.

Thus our fuzzy blue friend with an eating disorder joins the ranks of other Gen-X cultural icons that have been emasculated by progressive busybodies through a campaign of gradualism.

Sure, childhood obesity is a problem. But they could have kept the song, and accomplished the same objective by highlighting the 'monstrous' side of food addiction. Show Cookie Monster breaking into houses for a couple of fig newtons, being brutalized by 'The Count' and his goons for not paying back a loan, or trading his dignity for nothing more than a few Pecan Sandies. I say put the horrific, existential 'monster' back into Cookie Monster - take us through the spiraling abyss at the heart of his dependency on baked goods - and I'm willing to bet the kids of America will gladly eat their vegetables.