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cookie monster
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cookie monster /n./ [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. Folklorist Jan Brunvand (see FOAF) has described
these programs as urban legends (implying they probably never
existed) but they existed, all right, in several different
versions. See also wabbit. Interestingly, the term `cookie
monster' appears to be a retcon; the original term was
cookie bear.
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