Grouch

Via Indri, I learn that a guy named Carroll Spinney has been performing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch all these years. The New York Times article says:

Spinney says he modeled Oscar on the Bronx taxi driver who drove him to the old Muppet Mansion the first day he played the character, greeting him with a gruff, “Where to, Mac?” In Spinney's mind, Oscar is 43.

Of course.