Bert & Ernie

Quick note re postage:
I'm sorry I've been laggardly answering comments, so I'll put the answer about overseas postage here:
I looked up shipping rates for girlette 2023 calendars from the USA to Europe.
Yikes.
Sadly, the calendar would cost the  $16 cost to print + $14 postage = $40.
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This Bert & Ernie puzzle from 1976 was donated to the thrift store.
I added the quote marks on the photo: We're "Friends".

Bert & Ernie have no official age but appear to be adults. Officially, they are best friends and roommate who share the basement apartment at 123 Sesame Street.
In 2018, "Former Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said Bert and Ernie’s relationship was modeled after his own with his life partner, Arnold Glassman."

Sesame Workshop, however, said, "they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”
That's skirting the issue: some puppets do have an active sexuality. Isn't Miss Piggie interested in Kermit the Frog sexually?

Hm--looking that up, (the answer is, yes), I saw that Google also produced the question, "Is Miss Piggy a male?"
The answer to that is, sort of?
Her voice came from film director Frank Oz, the man who also created her.

Gosh--this I didn't know: Oz is also known for his voice and puppet work as Yoda, the Jedi sage in the Star Wars series.
So Yoda and Miss Piggy are like, cousins. That fits!

Whether Bert & Ernie are gay only matters because people think being gay is bad. As Aja Romano wrote in 2018 on Vox,
"The history of Bert and Ernie as queer icons is a history of people being incensed by their status as queer icons."

Bert & Ernie certainly love each other. Here, they exchange their very own Gift of the Magi:

See also "Bert & Ernie Make The New Yorker"