2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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cookie monster
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [from the children's TV program Sesame Street ] Any of a family of early
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(1970s) hacks reported on TOPS-10 , ITS , Multics , and elsewhere that would
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lock up either the victim's terminal (on a timesharing machine) or the
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console (on a batch mainframe ), repeatedly demanding I WANT A COOKIE. The
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required responses ranged in complexity from COOKIE through HAVE A COOKIE
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and upward. Folklorist Jan Brunvand (see FOAF ) has described these programs
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as urban legends (implying they probably never existed) but they existed,
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all right, in several different versions. See also wabbit. Interestingly,
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the term cookie monster appears to be a retcon ; the original term was
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cookie bear.
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