cookie monster

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 Brunvandt (see {FOAF}) has described these
   programs as urban legends (implying they never existed) but he is
   wrong; 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}.