Ernie, You're A Fool

Have you ever noticed the URL in this link before? There's a story behind it. And it all starts with PBS....

A few years back I had a class that ironically loved watching Sesame Street video podcasts during dismissal at the end of the school day. It was a great way to keep them calm (somewhat) until it was time to leave. Many of the podcasts we found in the iTunes library were pretty amusing; one of our favorites had Jack Black and Elmo teaching us about octagons.

During the lunch break on each Track and Field Day there are usually several videos playing on different closed-circuit channels for the classes to watch while they eat. On this particular year, none of the educationally-themed video choices caught the interest of my class, so they all but demanded that instead of watching National Geographic or "Arthur" or whatever, I should turn on the Promethean board so we could watch some podcasts. One by one we played through the downloaded library, including several we'd never had the chance to watch before. One of these was about our TV pals Bert and Ernie. Ernie had just received a brand new disguise kit in the mail and was excited to try it out on his ol' buddy Bert. As it happened, Bert was in no mood for such shenanigans; he was actually reading from a book that said "Boring Stories" on the cover (don't you love how subversive the Children's Television Workshop was back in the old days?) and was pretty involved in it. Ernie excused himself, did one of his nasally Ernie laughs before sneaking outside, then knocked on the door. Bert answered it and saw Ernie with an eye patch and a skull and crossbones hat, pretending he was a pirate. Bert looked right at the camera with a classic lost-for-words expression that would have made Jim Halpert proud, then turned back to Ernie and said very plainly, "Ernie, you're a fool."

Cut back to Track and Field Day. Bert delivers his line and I absolutely explode with laughter at how perfectly plainspoken and unexpected it was. Sitting in the room at this moment: Me at my desk, all of my students, and probably about ten parents visiting for the day, who were now all looking at me as if perhaps I had been out in the Track and Field Day sun a little too long.

When I started up "Summer Vacation" almost three years ago and needed to come up with a URL to assign the page, I wanted something that would have a bit of significance for me, but would also be obscure enough to get anyone who noticed it wondering about what it was supposed to mean.

Well, now you know. I'm a sucker for Bert's comedic delivery.