Grouchy

The less than clean fellow above is one Oscar the Grouch, and today is not, as far as I can tell, his birthday. However, there is a dearth of actual heroes for today, and Oscar is kind of enough to step into the gap. And since I have been compared to Oscar by my co-workers I figured that Oscar would have to be one of my heroes. In fact, if I were to delve too deeply into my childhood, I might find that he is a bit of an inspiration. Oscar is 43 years old, and has always been 43 years old, so I guess a birthday does not really have a lot of meaning to him, but I guess there are worse things than being forever 43. He was originally orange, but the cameras of the day were not good at picking up that colour, and he became green. He lives in a trash can, and is rarely seen outside of it, though he does have a car named the "Sloppy Jalopy."

The origin of his name comes from a waiter at a restaurant called Oscar's Tavern that his creator Jim Henson was a patron of. There was a waiter at the joint that was just grouchy beyond belief, and thus "Oscar the Grouch" was born. I wonder if that waiter ever figured it out that one of the most rude, crude, and grouchy characters in the world was based on him. If he did figure it out, I wonder if it changed how he acted. If he were truly a grouch, I doubt it. Once a grouch pretty much always a grouch is my theory, and I am sure that anyone who knows me would tell you the same thing. Being a grouch is a way of life, not just some knucklehead having a bad day. Oscar may be a grouch, but he has been entertaining children since even I was a child, and that was a long time ago. Clearly he has being a grouch down to an art form, and the rest of us could take lessons in grouchiness from him. So, for being a consummate grouch, and still managing to teach generations of children wholesome life lessons, Oscar the Grouch (??-present), you are my (315th) hero of the day.