One Week, Muppets, and Deadly Sins

"One Week", Barenaked Ladies

One week to go until Election Day. For those of us who didn't get to vote early, that is! I'm so very envious of you early voters, I'm nearly wrathful!

I was going to do a post on that putz Grover Norquist. I keep seeing a political "issue" ad from his "Americans for Tax Reform" group, where he explains that regulations will be the death of America and the downfall of its economy.

Update, 11/5/08: Here it is:




Keep in mind that Grover Norquist has been a "shadow minister" in the Bush Administration, helping to guide the economic policies that have brought us to...here. This is the guy who wants to shrink the U.S. government to the size where he can "drown it in the bathtub" - remember that if you're ever planning a night out with your significant other, and good old Grover is the only babysitter available.

Anyway. I was gonna write this screed against this guy, but turns out there's so much about him out there already, anything I had to say would be redundant. If you're interested, it's easy enough to find all sorts of stuff about him online. Here's an old favorite, his Fresh Air interview from 2003:

Grover Norquist on Fresh Air from WHYY, October 2, 2003

So I'm not gonna do that.

Instead, thanks to this post on Dr. Isis's On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess... , I have become re-acquainted with a long-lost children's classic: Sesame Street Sings the Seven Deadly Sins.

Not seen in many years, this now-forgotten special (later released as a limited-edition Betamax video) veered off from the typically secularist bent of the Children's Television Workshop and presented children with characters singing songs about each of the Seven Deadly Sins, with gleeful introductions to each by none other than The Count himself. Shockingly, the songs presented the sins in a positive light.

Here, for example, is Grover (your Lovable Furry Pal, not the one previously mentioned) singing the praises of one of the sins in the song "Pride (Not in the Name of Love)":



Other songs in the collection:

• Kermit may be green, but Bert musically is green with Envy! He sings "Somebody Else's Bottlecap Collection (Is Bigger Than Mine)."
• Oscar can't be bothered to leave his garbage can to sing "I'll Get Up When I Feel Like It," about Sloth.
• Cookie Monster, naturally, sings the praises of Gluttony in "Gimme Gimme Gimme All Da Cookies!"
• Ernie reveals his true feelings about his roommate with an ode to Lust in "You're More Than Just a Buddy, More Than Just a Pal."
• Elmo, the youngest and - even in his earliest days - the most successful Muppet, sings about Greed from atop a pile of merchandising revenue in "All the Money in the World (Isn't Enough for Elmo)."
• Snuffy sings about Wrath, as we learn how Mr. Hooper really died in "I'll Show YOU Who's a Figment of Big Bird's Imagination."

In an early draft of the movie, this special was to have served as one of John Doe's inspirations in the thriller Se7en.