I remember reading (what I guess was) the article at the time that became this book. For some reason this line has always stuck with me: "If you look at their eyes, you understand," one survivor tells him, "that they are completely alien to us."
Bears are a whole different species.
And we all laughed back in 2016 when Betsy DeVos said that guns should be allowed in schools to provide protection from grizzly bears. Well who's laughing now?
I guess we are.
I almost have to admire the unhinged determination of hardcore libertarians. No matter how many times these Galt's Gulch experiments end in comically horrible ways, they keep trying.
I dunno. This bear seems pretty chill and agreeable.
Bears are safer than libertarians, to be sure.
I almost have to admire the unhinged determination of hardcore Marxists. No matter how many times these Bolshevist experiments end in terrifying mass murder, gulags, and poverty, they keep trying.
We get a lot of bears in our neighborhood, which is near the edge of a small city set in a vast forest. Earlier this year I found some bear poop in the backyard.
8: I wondered how you could tell it was bear poop, and it turns out the answer is because of its pleasant smell.
https://bear.org/scat-droppings/#
The bears eating kittens is a very vivid detail.
That painting and Beard's Bulls and Bears on Wall Street, is at the New-York Historical Society. They also have Thomas Cole's series The Course of Empire. Many years ago I was there doing research in the papers of McKim, Mead & White. I went to use the toilet and on my way unexpectedly found that these iconic paintings were on display in this small museum. The Coles in particular I had thought were in a major museum. Nope.
At least they aren't in the bathroom.
I can't remember if the Mona Lisa was in the bathroom at the Louvre or if I just couldn't find the regular bathroom.
I saw The Course of Empire a few years ago when it was on loan to LACMA. Really overwhelming.
Re: Teddy Bears' Picnic: I have a very clear memory that that song was on a cassette of Mitch Miller songs that my dad kept in the car for long drives, but my efforts to find it listed on any MM album have come to nothing. It's such a strong memory though -- I could swear it was on the same tape as Tzena Tzena and Heart of My Heart.
At least they aren't in the bathroom.
My 1st draft had that implication. I edited it because I knew Moby would see it and comment. Ha!
My brain is going to read what it wants to read.
This bear seems pretty chill and agreeable.
That's because it's thinking, "It's going to be hilarious when I eat this dude."
19: The brain wants what it wants.
I saw The Course of Empire a few years ago when it was on loan to LACMA. Really overwhelming.
Yes! And it was even more so when I was surprised by it. I recall standing there in amazement. Big paintings and no one else viewing them.
The only other similar shock was turning a corner in the art museum in Brussels and seeing Death of Marat on the opposite wall. Another complete surprise. I had thought it was in France.
One woman, who prudently chose to remain anonymous save for the sobriquet "Doughnut Lady," ... had taken to welcoming bears on her property for regular feasts of grain topped with sugared doughnuts.
Prudent enough to remain anonymous, but not prudent enough to not feed the bears.
People are crazy. Which is why we need rules and regulations, and forest rangers to remind us to NOT FEED THE BEARS!
It's a trick. He hasn't really disappeared.
The thing I loved best from the obits was the story of how he screwed Uri Geller by ensuring that when he went on television to perform his tricks he was presented with a pair of brand new prop spoons that he'd not got his hands on before -- and his total failure just convinced his fans that his gifts must be real, since they didn't always work.
Speaking of animals, somebody on Nextdoor is asking people to ID a woman in a picture. The first neighbor set a fox trap (I'm assuming she wants to rescue the foxes) and the second neighbor's dog got caught in the trap. The woman destroyed the trap while freeing her dog. The trapper wants compensation.
Today there was another bear sighting in the neighborhood. But its all the way on the other side of the cemetery, so we are probably in the clear. A bear wouldn't cross a cemetery, right?
The book is really not bad though it shows the unmistakable signs of being a longform article in an American magazine that has been inflated to book length.
Update: I am now about halfway through the book and it is really rather good. It might be book group material.