dual personalities

What’s a cross between Fat Baby Friday and Shark Week? A long-running marvel that I only just discovered, Fat Bear Week. It’s a contest run by the Katmai National Park in Alaska. Every year, they post photos of bears before and after they (the bears) have gorged on salmon. Then they pair up the bears, and people vote for the one they think is the fattest. Whichever bear wins goes to the next round until the last two bears face-off in a final contest. Voting started on October 5^th and continues through the 11^th. I recommend checking out the before and after photos here, and then voting here. Fat Bear Week is a better morale booster than finding a new series to binge-watch, although I feel a little cheated that I just discovered this wonderful annual contest. Here are a couple of teaser pictures from previous years.

Meet Holly, the winner of Fat Bear Week 2019.

You can also watch Katmai’s live grizzly cam:

Our father would have gotten a big kick out of our chunky ursine friends. He had a soft spot for bears. When he read out loud at Christmas or on rare occasions when he felt like amusing his daughters, he read bear stories — The Bears’ Christmas and Winnie the Pooh – and he could do it better than anyone else, a fact that made our mother a little jealous.  I wonder how he would have read this poem by Bret Harte:

Coward,—of heroic size,
In whose lazy muscles lies
Strength we fear and yet despise;
Savage,—whose relentless tusks
Are content with acorn husks;
Robber,—whose exploits ne’er soared
O’er the bee’s or squirrel’s hoard;
Whiskered chin, and feeble nose,
Claws of steel on baby toes,—
Here, in solitude and shade,
Shambling, shuffling plantigrade,
Be thy courses undismayed!

Here, where Nature makes thy bed,
Let thy rude, half-human tread
Point to hidden Indian springs,
Lost in ferns and fragrant grasses,
Hovered o’er by timid wings,
Where the wood-duck lightly passes,
Where the wild bee holds her sweets,
Epicurean retreats,
Fit for thee, and better than
Fearful spoils of dangerous man.

In thy fat-jowled deviltry
Friar Tuck shall live in thee;
Thou mayest levy tithe and dole;
Thou shalt spread the woodland cheer,
From the pilgrim taking toll;
Match thy cunning with his fear;
Eat, and drink, and have thy fill;
Yet remain an outlaw still!

It’s lovely to enjoy these giant bears from the safety of my living room sofa, but I sure wouldn’t want to encounter one in the wild! So, with that in mind, I bid you enjoy Fat Bear Week safely!