Big Bird goes Google for Sesame Street's 40th birthday

Big Bird, Sesame Street, and Google? Why not? The yellow star lent his legs to the site's homepage today, to mark the show's 40th birthday.

Google is taking us down the happiest street in the world.

Today, visitors to the site, lately one of the most sparse spots on the Web, are seeing possibly the world's most famous pair of legs (and no, we're not talking about Heidi Klum's, which were just insured $2.2 million.) We mean Big Bird, of course!

The reason? Today marks the 40th anniversary of children's TV show Sesame Street.

To celebrate, Sesame Street's website has been running a contest, where visitors can vote for their favorite episodes from the the show's impressive four-decade public television run.

We here at the Monitor have a soft spot for our furry friends from the Children's Television Workshop. Our recent "Famous Grouches" gallery was headlined by none other than trash can-dwelling Oscar himself (and good friend Telly).

And we were there in May, when First Lady Michelle Obama famously declared at the UN that she was happy to be there, but that she had just been at Sesame Street and that was more exciting.

Big Bird's cameo on the Google homepage follows a long line of "Google Doodles" – clever sketches or graphics that the site puts up to commemorate notable dates.

Most recent was a tribute to the humble barcode, which had many scrambling to decode what the site's cryptic symbol said (Hint: it was "Google," but we made up one of our own that kept readers guessing.

Before that, a Google Doodle paid homage to peace activist Mahatma Gandhi to commemorate what would have been his 140th birthday.

Then there was a period of days that saw cryptic UFO-related doodles taking over. It wasn't an invasion, but rather a tribute to "War of the Worlds" author HG Wells ahead of his birthday.

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Got a favorite Sesame Street memory? Leave it in the comments. And be sure to follow us on Twitter – we're @CSMHorizonsBlog.

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You know what else is warm and fuzzy? Snuggies. And now Weezer has one of their own. Seriously.