As Michael Stipe accurately predicted, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

In the… As Michael Stipe accurately predicted, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

In the wake of the Pope’s death, some crazy shenanigans have gone down. My cell phone has mysteriously decided to just shut off whenever it damn well pleases, some real whack-job con artist claimed to have found a human finger in her Wendy’s dollar menu chili and Sesame Street’s “The Cookie Monster” has given up sweets.

Yes, the loveable blue monster that once sang, “C is for cookie” has apparently taken enough grief from Atkins followers and is vowing to cut the carbs.

Actually, he hasn’t jumped on the no-bread bandwagon, but is taking steps to improve his eating habits.

In an article posted on CNN.com, a spokesperson for “Sesame Street” said, “With the rise of childhood obesity, ‘Sesame Street’ is concentrating on the need to teach children about healthy foods and physical activity.”

Cookie Monster has gone so far as to change the lyrics in his famous “C is for cookie” theme song to “A cookie is a sometimes food” in an effort to teach kids that although tasty, it is not the best of habits to scarf full plates of chocolate chip cookies, making quite a mess in the process.

It is admirable that “Sesame Street” recognizes this growing problem in our nation, where fast food is a staple and pudgy little kids are growing into big, obese adults.

Other age demographics need a charismatic character like our pal the Cookie Monster to lead us away from our television sets and Ramen noodles.

After all, it is during the college years that everyone packs on the pounds. For most college students, those weekend booze-fests, late-night pizza orders and no regularly scheduled athletic team practices leave us a tad heftier than we were when we first arrived in Towers.

Unfortunately, at this age, we aren’t as easily swayed or influenced by fuzzy blue monsters as we once were. I highly doubt that the Coors Light Twins will suddenly start chugging milk, or that late-night fruit salad deliveries will soon be all the rage. By this point, frankly, we should know better.

We’re all well aware of exactly what the consequences of our lifestyle choices are. In all honesty, most of us don’t really give a hoot.

It’s all but a fact that a bit of booze added to any activity ups the fun quotient considerably. And it is not our fault we’re all broke as a joke and food that’s cheap happens to lie in the “use sparingly” portion of the food pyramid.

More than anything, we only get four (or maybe five) years to really give in and just have some honest-to-goodness, unhealthy fun. We have the rest of our working lives to watch what we eat and pass on drinks on a dull Wednesday night. After all, work calls.

As our life cycle continues, many of us will become parents and will soon be reintroduced to characters such as the Cookie Monster, who will teach us, as well as our children, how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Maybe, like calculus, the message will become clear the second time around. But hey, at least we had our fun.

Colleen Bayus is partial to Grover but digs Cookie Monster as well. E-mail her at [email protected].