Funny things happen when you look for a fur-covered book. You get the one Sarah Palin was "reading" to her son during half of a TV news interview, Tiny Bear's Bible, which, it turns out, is not real bear skin, or even helicopter-hunted wolf; it's actually covered, like the Israelites' holy tabernacle in the wilderness, with badger skin [see Num. 4:6].
And you get the diametric opposite: Avenue Q: The Book, a detailed, full-color, behind-the-scenes story of the Broadway musical about the East Village's favorite band of drug-addled, gay, pervert puppets.
A reading from the book of Avenue Q:, Chapter 1, verse 1:
How Did They Ever Think Of This?And on and on. Read more of how Sesame Street begat Avenue Q and see pictures of Ernie and Bert recruiting a young Jeff Marx into the go-go dancing lifestyle with Amazon's Look Inside! feature. At least until Jan. 21, 2013 when President Palin has all copies confiscated and burned under the guise of her Fake-Fur-Back-To-Oil Conversion Program.The Backstory
Hollywood, Florida, 1973: Every afternoon, three-year-old Jeff Marx comes home from nursery school, sits on his living room floor, and turns on the television to PBS to watch his favorite show. Greenwich Village, 1978: Little Bobby Lopez begins to do the same. Though Marx and Lopez did not yet know each other, they, like millions of other children, had the same singing puppets for teachers. A green monster in a trash can taught them tolerance. A walking yellow bird taught them curiosity. A blue monster with a cookie addiction taught them self-control....friendly singing puppets united an entire generation of children....Jeff Marx, co-creator: Sesame Street characters were our babysitters. They were our friends. We had personal relationships with Maria, Gordon, Mr. Hooper, Grover, Big Bird, Snuffleupagus.
Bobby Lopez, co-creator: They were helpful, big-brother kind of role models. I remember the first itme I thought, "Ernie isn't real. That's not a person. That's a puppet." And that was sort of a mind f*($.
Avenue Q: The Book, $29.95 [amazon]
I'd better lock up all my copies of Little Fur Family, then. Oh lord, will our Pat the Bunny's be safe?