The Nature of Things

On September 24 ( Corrected from 21 ), 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi, a genius was born. True, it took the world a few years to recognize and acknowledge that genius, but by the 1970s when James Maury Henson joined "Sesame Street," he was already well on his way. It was "Sesame Street" and a certain green frog that made Jim Henson a star and a household name. Henson continued with the show until his untimely death on May 16, 1990. During those years, he also created films like The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper and was involved in creating the puppets for Dark Crystal and Labyrinth , as well as the television show "Fraggle Rock." All of these titles were staples of my daughters' childhood. They watched them - and I watched with them - over and over again. We never tired of them. Henson's creations live on and continue to entertain and inform children - and adults - right around the world. How fortunate we are that that is true. On wh...

The wonderful Dahlia Lithwick of the online magazine Slate has a very perceptive and funny piece in the magazine today called "Chaos Theory: A Unified Theory of Muppet Types."   It's worth your time to go and read the whole article but here's the capsule version. Lithwick maintains that human beings can be categorized as either one of two kinds of Muppets: Chaos Muppets or Order Muppets. As one who grew up with my children as they watched Sesame Street and learned their ABCs, colors, numbers, shapes, and much else from the Muppets, I have to say that her theory makes a whole lot of sense to me. Chaos Muppets are out-of-control, emotional, volatile. They tend toward the blue and fuzzy. They make their way through life in a swirling maelstrom of food crumbs, small flaming objects, and the letter C. Cookie Monster, Ernie, Grover, Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and—paradigmatically—Animal, are all Chaos Muppets. Zelda Fitzgerald was a Chaos Muppet. So, I must tell you, is Jus...