So, Gerald Ford has died.

It’s sad for his family and friends, of course. But what immediately comes to mind is this hilarious “Saturday Night Live” skit from 10 years ago, with Tom Brokaw (played by Dana Carvey) about to go on vacation and pre-taping various contingency headlines, including numerous permutations of Ford’s death. “Tragedy today, as former President Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious.” I hope someone posts the video online Here’s the video (thanks, Metafilter), and here’s the transcript.

Meanwhile, updating my New York Times obituary word count:

Length of Pope John Paul II’s obituary: 13,364 words.

Length of Richard Nixon’s obituary: 13,158 words.

Length of Ronald Reagan’s obituary: 10,757 words.

Length of Gerald Ford’s obituary: 8,109 words. (This might change as the obituary is revised for the print edition.)

Today I thought about this old Sesame Street Christmas special that used to run on PBS every holiday season when I was a little kid. They stopped airing it a long time ago, but there were certain parts I’d always remembered very clearly. On a hunch I decided to check YouTube, and sure enough, someone has put it up! Matt and I just watched it. It was such a jolt to see scenes I hadn’t seen in more than 20 years. It’s from 1978, so this is classic Sesame Street – it has Mr. Hooper, and there’s no Elmo (yay).

Here’s Part 1. Click on it to find links to parts 2 through 7. (Turns out it’s also available on DVD.)

Does anyone else remember this Saturday morning cartoon featuring the Happy Days gang traveling through time?