This article — by former McSweeney's editor John Warner — is kind of old, but it covers an all-too-often forgotten piece of history, and I think it still resonates.

Plus, I devoured this huge macadamia nut cookie in about 3.2 seconds with my coffee this morning, and it reminded me…

Nixon and Cookie Monster, drawing on recently declassified archives, argues that despite obvious differences in political outlook and ethnicity, these two iconic figures shaped the America we live in today.

Cookie Monster, we learn, began his career known simply as Monster. It was Nixon who advised him that adding Cookie to his name would endear him to the U.S. public. Cookie Monster reciprocated by hatching the "Southern strategy."

Oh, and this excerpt from the tapes always gives me chills…

Richard M. Nixon: Who the hell do you think is involved in that last leak?

H.R. Haldeman: Uh —

Cookie Monster: Me know who.

Nixon: Whoever it was, we should set the bureau on that son-of-a-bitch.

Cookie: Me forgot who it is.

John Ehrlichman: Put some —

Haldeman: Yep.

Ehrlichman: Put some heat on him. Because —

Cookie: Wait! Wait! Me remember hear Kermit the Frog say something about it.

Reading about this stuff always makes me nostalgic for my days just out of college as a real journalist. Back then, it used to be my dream to work my way up the ladder and make a real difference, like Woodward and Ernie.