Oscar plays Halo ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

A long-running household joke is the cat food commercial from around 1980 in which the pouch of cat food rips open, and a woman intones in a singsong voice, "Fresh!" Or maybe it was, "Special!"

Once again, I mention this ad, as I recall a family member replacing this intonation with, "Warthog!"

Warthogs are interesting. Not just the pig-like animal, but also the fictional battle vehicle found in the Halo series of video games. If you've ever played Halo, you've probably found a Warthog resting in the desert and have used it to aimlessly drive around in protest of falling to your death.

You know who else likes warthogs and Warthogs? Oscar the Grouch!

In this old 'Sesame Street' sketch, the ol' Osk extols the virtues of the word 'warthog':



'Warthog' doesn't have quite the same ring as 'ruin' or 'mayhem', but if it's good enough for my friend Oscar, it's good enough for me.

When Oscar plays Halo, finding a Warthog is probably the highlight of every game! For the rest of the day, he probably tells everyone, "I picked up a deadly Warthog!" Then he laughs about what a beautiful word it is!

Warthog!