The end is near...

Sweeping the Clouds Away
By Virginia Heffernan
(This is a NY Times article, so you will need to log in. If you don't want to create an account, you can sign in using Username: siemens2 Password: siemens from bugmenot.com)

Sunny days! The earliest episodes of "Sesame Street" are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, "Sesame Street: Old School" is adults-only: "These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child."

Thats right. Old school Sesame Street is now for adults only.

What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

Mwahaha!

Ok, so one scene shows a girl going into a strangers house to eat milk and cookies. Not a good thing. But are todays children really so fragile that Oscar can't be a grouch, Snuffalumpagus can't be invisible and Bert and Ernie stay in the closet with a wink and a nudge?

What is this world coming to?