While 1,500 attendees of the JFNA’s General Assembly were off participating in community service, I had lunch… with Oscar the Grouch and his Israeli counterpart, Moishe Oofnik.
Oscar and Oofnik, who opened Monday’s plenary session at the GA were kind enough to meet me (and my former JTA colleague Dan Sieradski) for lunch to talk trash, the GA and Shalom Sesame, the new Jewish-themed Sesame Street spin-off from the Sesame Workshop.
Before we actually ate, Oscar — or more accurately Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer and voice behind the famous canned curmudgeon as well as Bigbird — and Israeli actor Gilles Ben-David, who mans Oofnik made us giggle like 6-year-olds with a little improv, as you can see above and below.
If you’re above watching video clips online, we learned that Oscar wants to go to Israel one day, his first trip there was cancelled because of a war, he loves six-week-old hummus and there is a distinct difference between garbage and trash.
I will have a lot more on this down the road. But I could not resist putting up this video. (And if you are good Fundermentalist readers, there may be a few more in your future.)
