December 8, 2019 3:52 PM ET

LAUREL WAMSLEY

Caroll Spinney, the actor and puppeteer who portrayed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street over five decades, died Sunday at age 85.

The Sesame Workshop said Spinney had died at home in Connecticut, and that he had long lived with dystonia, a disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions.

“Caroll and Big Bird are very similar in their genuine niceness and sweetness and lovingness,” said Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founder of the Sesame Workshop said in a video tribute to Spinney last year. “He’s just so respectful and so nice to all the kids, and all that comes across in Big Bird.”

At a celebration for the show’s 15th anniversary in 1984, Muppet-master Jim Henson recounted how he and Spinney had met in August 1969 at a puppetry festival in Salt Lake City.

“He’s a very talented performer and he had a great sense of ad-libbing,” Henson remembered. “And he was doing this strange-looking cat on local television in Boston. And so we started talking at that point about doing this show, and I asked Caroll if he’d enjoy coming and being part of this very strange bird.”

But Spinney also played the character with the opposite of Big Bird’s sunny persona: Oscar the Grouch.

“I loved playing Oscar. He has a power I never had. … I can’t believe that Jim gave me two such characters that have become iconic, and are a part of so many people in America growing up.”

Spinney retired last year. As balance issues made the physically demanding role of Big Bird more difficult, the big yellow suit was taken on by another performer, Matt Vogel, while Spinney continued to voice Big Bird and Oscar.

By Jennifer Barnhill, Navy Spouse

See this article inside the December issue of Military Spouse Magazine.

With the threat of losing 18,000
uniformed medical billets over the next few years, frustrations at the lack of
health care continuity may be exacerbated for military families. Couple this
cutback with a lack of program clarity, and many beneficiaries feel as though
their care might suffer. 

Uncertainty in Change

On a good day, trying to negotiate the intricacies of a
public or private health care system can be irritating. Dealing with one when
you are mid-Permanent Change of Station or in a health crisis can result in
chalkboard-scratching, hair-pulling frustration.

Military families are among the
most vulnerable when it comes to continuity of care related issues. Moving
every two to three years requires families to start over, searching for new
health care providers, homes, schools, jobs, and friends.

In December 2016, Congress passed
the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act, the driving force behind
numerous changes to TRICARE and the Military Health System (MHS). Changes
already in effect include increased pharmacy copays and civilian-style open
enrollment period restrictions.

I’d like to celebrate some of the special people I interviewed while doing my weekend segments on WISH-TV in 2019.

Gregg Bell is 90 and still practices dentistry and is director of that department at Logansport State Hospital. But wait, there’s more! In 1953, Bell won the Olympic gold medal in long jumping in Melbourne, Australia. When I interviewed him, I asked him to show me the 26-foot, 5.2-inch distance that won him first place. He eyeballed the floor and walked it off within a quarter of an inch.

At the age of 18, Carmel resident Ashton Gleckman wrote, filmed, edited and produced an incredible documentary about Holocaust survivors that was featured this year at the Heartland Film Festival. He learned to do all this from YouTube videos. Not to brag, but I learned from YouTube how to use dental floss to get a stuck ring off my stubby finger.

Senior pickleball player Ralph Fowler is the star of the Monon Center pickleball league, and I was there with TV cameras to surprise him for his 90th birthday. He plays every bit as well as people half his age. He beat me in a game. I’m sure I could have beaten him if there had been a rematch, but I was too tired to play again.

Lonnie Bedwell lost his vision in 1997 when his best friend accidentally shot him during a hunting trip. The story of his adventures while blind include kayaking down the Colorado River, climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and skiing down the world’s most challenging slopes. “I wish I had my sight back,” Lonnie said during our interview, “but I wouldn’t trade the last 23 years for anything.”

If there are any acclaimed, massive RPGs from the past few years worth digging into, surely Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin 2 would rank high on that list. The acclaimed RPG took over PC and consoles in the past two years, and with its recent release on Nintendo Switch, an upcoming physical release of the game will pack in the massive RPG on a tiny cartridge for your collecting pleasure.

Limited Run Games announced that the company will be offering a physical release of Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Nintendo Switch in 2020, with pre-orders for the physical edition of the game now available on their website and running through early next year.

According to Limited Run, the physical Switch release for Divinity: Original Sin 2 will retail for $59.99 and include the base game alongside all previously-released free DLC. In addition to the game and DLC, the physical release from Limited Run will also include a 52-page game manual and color interior print with reversible cover art.

Pre-orders for the Switch physical release of Divinity: Original Sin 2 are available now through January 3, 2020, with shipments expected to go out 2-4 months after the pre-order window closes. According to Limited Run, physical copies of the Switch version may also make their way to Best Buy stores in 2020, though the retailer warns that the deal has not been finalized yet and that purchasers may “wait at their own risk.”