The Economy of Sesame Street

It has occurred to me that in all the decades I've been watching SESAME STREET, I've never seen anybody pay for anything at Hooper's Store. In fact, nobody on the show seems to use money at all. (I recall only one exception, to be mentioned below.) When kids and monsters order food, treats, or other items, Chris and Alan, like their predecessors over the years, appear to just give them stuff. My head-canon rationalizes the situation that customers or their parents run tabs, since it's a locally owned business where the storekeepers know everybody.

As for Grover's experiences of serving restaurant meals to the grumpy little blue man, we have to assume a bill is presented after the meal, a transaction that happens out of the audience's view. The one clear exception to the apparently cashless economy I've noticed occurs in an episode when some Muppet characters go shopping with Chris at the supermarket. There we do witness him, as the adult, checking out groceries and paying for them.

Money and its constraints come up at least once in the Neighborhood of Make Believe segment of MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD. The residents of Make Believe want to build a swimming pool, for which they've saved up barely enough money. Then a water pipe breaks, requiring an expensive repair, and they have to decide how to use their limited funds.

The newish PBS series CARL THE COLLECTOR addresses the problem of budgeting in an episode when the twin rabbit girls decide to start a hamster-sitting business. They go crazy at the pet shop, buying all sorts of fun, frivolous products, then realize they have no money for necessities such as hamster food and basic equipment. They have to return the stuff they bought for a refund and start over, shopping for things hamsters really need. I recommend CARL THE COLLECTOR, by the way, for its presentation of neurodivergent characters and its portrayal of kids learning how to solve relationship problems.

Not surprisingly, the long-running series ARTHUR -- whose main characters were supposed to be in third grade until the end of the final season but acted more like ten- or eleven-year-olds -- included several episodes in which the kids had to decide how to save, budget, and spend money.

Should SESAME STREET incorporate occasional lessons about money, since that's a topic growing children need to understand sooner rather than later in today's society? Or, given the abbreviated half-hour format, does the series already have its plate full enough with numbers, letters, technology, the Foodie Truck (my favorite feature), solving problems both physical and social, navigating relationships, handling emotions, and appreciating differences?

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Plant Neurobiology?

In reference to my July 25 post on "plant intelligence," coincidentally the September/October 2024 issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER contains an article by Massimo Pigliucci titled "Are Plants Conscious?" In his view, a science labeled "plant neurobiology," based on the idea that plants could have intelligence or consciousness, constitutes a "category mistake." Neuroscience studies "brains and their associated nervous systems," physical features of animals but not plants. He concedes that plants in a sense process information. As for responding to "environmental cues," he points out that all living creatures do that. He objects to conflating those general terms with the specific types of behavior we call "cognition" and "intelligence" in animals. Moreover, the claim that plants feel pain is extremely unlikely because, as far as anyone knows, pain and awareness of any other physical sensation require a nervous system. He proposes, "Plants are fascinating in part precisely because they are so different from animals."

If plants feel pain, by the way, consider the ethical implications of eating them. I'm reminded of the satirical song "Carrot Juice Is Murder," by the Arrogant Worms. "I've heard the screams of the vegetables, watching their skins being peeled. . . ."

Carrot Juice Is Murder

The PBS network features a miniseries about the vegetable kingdom called GREEN PLANET, hosted by Sir David Attenborough:

Green Planet

Stop-motion photography produces sped-up films of plant growth to illustrate that these organisms are far from inert and passive. Attenborough's narration talks about phenomena such as seedlings and saplings competing with their neighbors for light and air, or fungus in the nests of leaf-cutter ants telling the ants what type of leaves it wants. That kind of language and the accompanying dynamic videos make it temptingly easy to view plants in anthropomorphic or at least theriomorphic terms.

Noticing how English ivy climbs our window screens seemingly overnight after heavy rains, regardless of how often it's trimmed back, I could easily imagine the vines have "conscious" intentions and preferences.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love amonng the monsters at Carter's Crypt.