c'mon monsters! you don't have to cry! we can be happy!

Born in 1975, I am smack in the middle of the first generation of kids who grew up with the Muppets and Sesame Street. I can do the Pigeon and sing along to Rubber Ducky (even the reggae version!) with the best of them, and the sight of Kermit's skinny little greenbean legs can still send me into fits of apoplectic laughter. There are even unsubstantiated rumors flying around that my first crush was on The Count*. But despite all of the hours spent with the Sesame Street gang in my youth I haven't been a regular viewer of the show for 25 years or so. Therefore, when Michael Stipe and his compadres popped up on the screen this morning while I was trying to apply Clara's daily dose of SPF 30, we both stopped what we were doing (me, slathering... her, squirming) and did a giddy little early morning jig together.

I love REM. And I love the Muppets. I can't believe this combination of the two (with Kate Pierson's bit performed by a muppet with lots of floppy red hair, no less!) has been on the airwaves for eight years without my knowledge. Good thing it's never too late for wide-eyed discovery.



Best of all, now Clara likes REM too. I wonder how long it'll be before she dismisses them as old fogey music.

*Speaking of the Count, another new, crushworthy thing I recently learned from Sesame Street is that he is "A Professor of Counting to Ten at MIT." Awesome.