Sesame Street

PUPPETS are not just for kids if this show is anything to go by. Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx's award-winning Avenue Q Muppet-style musical is somewhere in the realm between Sesame Street and South Park . Charming Princeton, animated by Mitchell Butel, is an unemployed college graduate who has arrived on Avenue Q with big dreams but no money.  

As we're all collectively counting down the remaining days before 2010, Google's Dennis Hwang is busy tweaking the Google logo to mark the occasion, a job the talented designer has been enjoying since 2000. Unlike the vast majority of companies who never tinker with their visual identity, Google is well-known for playing with its brand logo designed by Ruth Kedar. Known as Google Doodles, those logo modifications replace the default Google logo on the main search page to mark global holidays, special ev  

As most of my Readistas know, I rather enjoy my role as a contrarian. When Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles died within a few months of each other a few years back, I told every one that Ray made a much more positive impact on society than Ronnie. A few months back, after the deaths of Ted Kennedy and Eunice Shriver, I told every one that Eunice made a much more positive impact on society than any of her siblings.  

The Housatonic Valley Association is gearing up for its 19th annual auction to benefit the environment, with big-ticket items including a trip to Italy. The auction to benefit the environment will take place Sunday, Dec. 6, at the Bryan Memorial Town Hall in Washington, Conn. People can buy tickets by calling (860) 672-6678 or by logging onto www.hvatoday.org . The silent auction begins at 1 p.m. and the live auction begins at 3 p.m. Dedicated to protecting the bodies of water in the Housatonic River

When I was a kid, I explored everywhere   -Lynn Werner

 

Sesame Street Live and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. There was nothing horribly wrong with the Sesame Street Live show, and my two-year-old daughter loved every minute of Bert, Ernie, and Elmo extolling the virtues of having a healthy imagination. But myself, my wife, and — most annoyingly — my six-year-old son were forced to use our imaginations far too often during the show as we all imagined ourselves being somewhere far more interesting. The only time the three of us snapped to attent  

With "Sesame Street" having just marked its 40th anniversary on TV, it's as good a time as any for the latest version of "Sesame Street Live" to swing back through S.A. for a four-day run starting Wednesday in the Freeman Coliseum. In "When Elmo Grows Up," the ticklish red kid with the falsetto seeks career advice from his Muppet buddies, including Telly, who dreams of being a cowboy, and Bert, who envisions himself as a forest ranger. Fine print: Shows at 7 p.m.  

With the economy still on extremely shaky ground, many Americans have had to make some major adjustments in their spending patterns, and most folks are getting their entertainment closer to home, watching television, playing online games, and renting or buying DVDs instead of going out as often. And the odds are good that, for many, their holiday wish lists include items in a similar vein. Happily, there's a wide array of gift ideas available for any secret Santa, whatever his budget.  

In the four decades since its premiere on Nov. 10, 1969, Sesame Street has been the subject of enough scholarly studies to give Big Bird a lifetime of nest-making material. Leafing through the literature is like letting the Cookie Monster loose in a Mrs. Fields franchise: You delve in excitedly before realizing there's more here than any single creature can digest. The nexus between Sesame Street and academic research predates the debut of the classic children's show.  

Leslie Bowen is 6-foot-1 in his street clothes. But once he dons Big Bird's yellow-feathered body, he's a towering 8-foot-2. Bowen has portrayed Sesame Street's iconic yellow giant for five years, in Vee Corp.'s Sesame Street Live productions.