Being the Jim Henson fan that I am, (I was actually listening to John Denver & the Muppets earlier today), I clicked on Cookie to see what I could see. The following article was the first on the engine search. 
This article is about Caroll Spinney, the man inside the costume. I marvel that a man who is 76 years old still loves his job after 40 years as an 8-foot-tall-6-year-old canary and a grumpy old green grouch named Oscar.
Despite my short attention span, sometimes I lose touch with the child in me. I carry the weight of such grown-up responsibilities like mortgage payments, grocery shopping, car repairs, and utility bills. My knees hurt if I kneel on the floor too long. And I find myself set in my ways and not always willing to learn or try something new. But this was a healthy reminder that we are never too old to sing the alphabet song or count to 40 just to know that we can. (I'll never be a decent mother now or grandma someday if I forget that entirely.) Like all of us, I occasionally just need a reminder that it's OK to be a kid at heart.
I think people like Caroll Spinney and Paul Winchell (the voice of Tigger for over 30 years) are really iconic. They become something more than they really are because they are two people, or even more. Think about how many children have come to love Big Bird or Tigger over those years that they played the part. While they are fictitious characters, they are certainly real for all those kids, especially those kids who grew up with them and are still fond of them. (I still like both.) I never knew Caroll Spinney’s name as a kid, but Big Bird was an essential part of my weekday routine for a long time.
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