Not sure what Kuhnhenn Brewing Company was thinking when creating a label for cocoa-flavored beer—featuring Count von Count from Sesame Street.
For starters, the brand should have gone with Count Chocula.
Somebody should count how many cans of brew were consumed by the responsible designer before drafting the label.
Judge tosses sex suits vs. ex-TV Elmo
By Bruce Golding
It was a sunny day for ex-Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash after a judge tossed three suits filed by young men who claimed they suffered psychological damage as a result of having had underage sex with the “Sesame Street” star.
In a ruling filed yesterday, Manhattan federal Judge John Koeltl said the men, now all in their 20s, waited too long to sue the longtime voice of Elmo under a statute of limitations that requires legal action within “six years after the cause of action accrues or three years after the plaintiff turns 21, which ever is longer.”
All three suits — which Koeltl noted contained “nearly identical” language — were filed between eight and 16 years after the men say they had sex with Clash while in their teens.
Clash resigned in disgrace after the first suit was filed last year,. but the scandal didn’t stop him from winning three Daytime Emmy Awards last month, including outstanding performer in a children’s series.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jeff Herman, vowed to appeal, calling the statute of limitations “an arbitrary timeline that silences victims.”
Cecil Singleton, 25, of Harlem, said he wished he could have spoken to Koeltl personally to explain why he waited so long after his relationship with Clash, which he says began at age 15 when they met on a gay telephone chat line.
“Until I knew Kevin had a fetish for underage men, it never occurred to me that I was a victim,” Singleton said.
A similar suit filed by a fourth accuser who lives in Pennsylvania remains pending in federal court in Harrisburg, Penn., where Clash has filed a motion to transfer the case to New York.
Clash’s lawyer didn’t return a request for comment.
The New York Daily News reported Sesame Street introduced a new Muppet—Alex—whose father is in jail. Look for a possible bonding friendship between Alex and Elmo.
‘Sesame Street’ introduces first-ever muppet with a parent in prison
The long-running children’s show is introducing the storyline in an online kit being made available to prisons and advocacy groups. The Sesame Workshop hasn’t shied away from other thorny topics.
By Erik Ortiz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
“Sesame Street” is teaching kids about bedtime, bath time and jail time.
The popular children’s television series hasn’t shied away from tough topics in the past, and has introduced a new muppet named Alex as a way to talk about the stigma of having a parent in jail.
“I just miss him so much,” the fuzzy blue-haired muppet says of his locked-up dad, adding, “Sometimes I just feel like I want to pound on a pillow and scream as loud as I can.”
The sensitive subject is being featured in an online teaching kit called, “Little Children, Big Challenges.”
The clips featuring Alex aren’t actually being aired on television, and he isn’t being introduced as a regular character on the show.
Still, “Sesame Street” execs say his story can be a useful tool for kids, specifically those ages 3 to 8. The show has broached other tricky lessons relating to divorce, hunger and military deployment.
“Coming from a muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to the children,” Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop, told the “Today” show.
The videos show Alex telling his friends that his dad won’t be able to help him build a toy car. When they ask him why his father is not around, he says he doesn’t want to talk about it.
Later, his friends ask him what’s wrong.
“My dad’s in jail,” he says haltingly, adding, “I don’t like to talk about it. Most people don’t understand.”
A human friend says that her father was once incarcerated, which happens when “someone breaks the law — a grown-up rule — and then they have to go to jail or prison.”
A Pew Charitable Trusts report found that 1 in every 28 children has a parent behind bars.
In New York state, an estimated 105,000 kids have an incarcerated parent, although that’s a low-ball figure, said Tanya Krupat, program director of the Osborne Association’s New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents.
Krupat said the group is excited about the “Sesame Street” kit, which is in the process of being shipped to prisons in 10 states, including New York.
“We’re grateful to them for taking this on,” Krupat told the Daily News.
While she thinks America may not be ready for a character such as Alex to be a regular on a kids’ show, she hopes the attention brought by “Sesame Street” will spotlight the issue of over-incarceration.
“The goal of these materials is not to normalize parental incarceration because there’s nothing normal about it,” Krupat said. “It’s great to focus on those children immediately impacted … but I want to see these materials affect policy.”
I love my hair, so I must declare:
I really, really, really love my hair.
Wear a clippy or in a bow,
Or let it sit in an afro,
My hair looks good in a cornrow,
It does so many things you know, that’s why I let it grow.
