My brother Jacob and I are 13 months apart. We were always mistaken as twins. For example, our Christmas gifts never departed too far from one another; usually a slight color variation was the defining quality. Notice the matching pajamas tops? On this fateful Christmas morning (12/25/1975), we both received similar hand puppets, but this time, with more than a color variation. I remember thinking that Bert and Ernie were awesome, but Ernie was way better than Bert. I received the Bert puppet and my brother got Ernie. Ernie was fun and smiley, Bert was a stick in the mud. Bert had a tall pointy head towering above a strange menacing uni-brow. He did have pigeons for pets, but Ernie had his rubber ducky and that cool song we all love so much. I knew deep down, I was Bert in that brotherly relationship. Santa did too.