Sesame Street, Snopes and Computer Speech

Three. It's a magic number. Yes it is. It's a magic number. Because 2 x 3 is 6 and 6 x 3 is 18 and the 18th letter of the alphabet is R. There are 3 R's we're gonna talk about today. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....

Jack Johnson tells us about 3 important R words in this song. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Click on his name to see him perform it live.

I have three important S words I want to talk about today. Because the 19th letter of the alphabet is S.

My first S word is Sesame Street (two words? whatever.)

I love Sesame Street. Mr. Hooper, Gordon, Susan, Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Grover and many others are familiar names and faces in my world. By the time I became a mother Mr. Hooper had passed away, Elmo had been added to the cast, Oscar had a pet worm, (Slimey) and everybody knew about Mr. Snuffleupagus.

The most exciting part of becoming a father for Cycle Guy was to have an excuse to watch Sesame Street again. (Although he did become quite an expert diaper changer.)

I heard they handled Mr. Hooper's death really well. Honestly presenting it in a way that helped children grieve and connect with death as well as fondly remembering Mr. Hooper. I would love to delve into the archives and see that episode.

Spanish, Cooperation, Sharing, Compassion, Diversity (Bert!) and how to count are all things a child learns on Sesame Street. It is an icon of my childhood and that of my children. Thank you Mr. Henson and all of you many many other wonderful people for creating this remarkable program.

An error was made in my post yesterday about the Letter K. I repeated a rumor before I confirmed its validity. Don't worry~ Cookie Monster is still named Cookie Monster. Please click here to read about the rumor and an interview with Cookie Monster about his love of cookies as well as all things healthy.

Which brings us to my next S. Snopes. Snopes also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a web site that is the best-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin in American popular culture.

I use Snopes often for finding out if email rumors are true. Most recently to find out that Cookie Monsters name really had not been changed. Here I found my answer. Another fun thing I did at this site is click on Cokelore. Every rumor you ever heard about Coca-Cola is here. Find out if Coke ever contained Cocaine, whether the company was ever owned by the Mormon Church, and how many calories really are in a Diet Coke.

The best part about Snopes is that Barbara and David Mikkelson, the founders and organizers of Snopes really do their research. It is not a place where the Mikkelson's simply share their personal ideas. They do in depth research to discover the truth behind the rumors. What a fun job!

My third S word is Computer Speech (Lingo doesn't start with an S)

I have to add many words to the dictionary in my computer these days because with the 'invention' of the internet (Thank you Al Gore-hmmm maybe I should look that up in Snopes) comes the invention of many new words. Sometimes its the usage of an old word that has changed.

Let's see: email, blog, Snopes, text, i.m., site, URL, web, Wikipedia, Avatar, Emoticons, Link, Message Boards, Forums, Facebook, MySpace, social networking, and dot com, ...just to name a few that come to mind. click here for definitions to many of these.

This is an example of Emoticons

Cute, Eh?

Then there's the whole acronym scene... like LOL. There are so many of these I'm not even going there, but you can click here for an alphabetical list.

Fashionista also knows how to use different letters and symbols on the keyboard to make different shapes. Stuff like the smiley face :-)

I have an affinity for today's 3 S's. How about you?

• Do you have a favorite Sesame Street moment or character (did you know there are around a thousand Sesame Street Characters? Click here to see them all).
• What interesting facts have you learned from Snopes?
• Maybe you have a computer acronym that you just can't live without...

Leave a comment and let me know!