cookie bear

cookie bear
 n. obs.

   Original term, pre-Sesame-Street, for what is now universally called a
   {cookie monster}. A correspondent observes "In those days, hackers
   were actually getting their yucks from...sit down now...Andy Williams.
   Yes, that Andy Williams. Seems he had a rather hip (by the standards
   of the day) TV variety show. One of the best parts of the show was the
   recurring `cookie bear' sketch. In these sketches, a guy in a bear
   suit tried all sorts of tricks to get a cookie out of Williams. The
   sketches would always end with Williams shrieking (and I don't mean
   figuratively), `No cookies! Not now, not ever...NEVER!!!' And the bear
   would fall down. Great stuff."
    

cookie monster
cookie bear

   <recreation> (From the children's TV program "Sesame Street")
   Any of a family of early (1970s) hacks reported on {TOPS-10},
   {ITS}, {Multics} and elsewhere that would lock up either the
   victim's terminal (on a {time-sharing} machine) or the
   {console} (on a batch {mainframe}), repeatedly demanding "I
   WANT A COOKIE".  The required responses ranged in complexity
   from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE" and upward.

   See also {wabbit}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1997-02-12)