B…or not a B

As I am industriously reminding myself how to conjugate verbs into the preterite, I leave you today with two clips from Sesame Street. Hulu has posted a whole collection of Sesame Street celebrity guest appearance clips, and I’ll admit to having wasted a little more time than was probably necessary watching some of my favorites (Anderson Cooper, Yo-Yo Ma, Jack Black and Natalie Portman are up at the top). The celebrity guest appearance doesn’t always work quite as well as planned – some people are too stiff (Nancy O’Dell), while some of the concepts are surprisingly inappropriate for children’s television. Who thought it was a good idea to let Chuck Close come talk about painting with Big Bird?

But when it works, it works really, really well. Here are two appearances by Patrick Stewart, equally delightful in their own ways.