Bear-O-Rama

Although it may strike some of us as silly that anyone would even ask this question, people persist. There are probably as many good reasons as there are bears; however, Robert Capon (whom we mentioned briefly when we mentioned food) claims to know the 17 possible answers to the question. Consider his answers, then give us yours.

Sometimes we're merely reading a magazine, or maybe the newspaper, when we innocently turn a page and have our breath taken away by a bear who suddenly appears before our eyes. Well, when that happens, we rip the page out and put it right into our Bear Box. (Yes, it's a real box, made of metal.) Within, and below, you'll find some of our favorite selections.

This collection looks at some of our favorite images of bears in history, pictures of men that do a little something extra for us. Naturally, this is an arbitrary collection after our own taste, but that is why you're looking, isn't it?

The image at right is a photograph of John Singer Sargent taken in 1900, when he was 44 years old. Follow the link for more.

Here we share some of our favorite images of contemporary bears in the arts and letters, mostly of musicians with some of artists and writers to balance the seasoning. Again, it's a reflection of our tastes, not only in bears, but also in the recordings and books we buy that have these pictures on their liner notes or book jackets.

The photograph at left is of the late harpsichordist and organist Scott Ross. There's more inside, of course.

Despite the recent vintage of the bear concept, history provides a wealth of attractive, bearded men and, to our good fortune, many of them have been depicted in art through the centuries. Herein we sample some of our favorites.

The illustration is a bust of the Emperor Hadrian, from the Capitoline Museum, Rome, Italy.

[Jeff:] I find that, in most cases, I key on a bear's face more than anything else, when it's a matter of what will attract my attention. Nearly a decade ago, in my early web-page days (and, coincidentally, my early bear-aware days), I put together a page of bear faces. Just faces. Faces that were the stuff of fantasy for me. These days I might put together a different collection, particularly since there are more available photographs to choose from. Nevertheless, this group captures the time for me, and I thought I'd preserve it here.

In some cases here the Bear Box is more conceptual, since some of these things wouldn't fit in it, but they should be in there, because we don't have anyplace else to put them! We have some odd, silly, and just plain bizarre things to show. Topping the list: don't miss the fisting santa.

Although the photo certainly doesn't do it justice, the picture shows an extraordinary, 3-D card sent to us by our friend Renzo; he says he found it in Florence, Italy. The two skiing bears are dangling in their chair before the diorama of other bear skiers of varying ability. The effect is unlike anything we've seen before.

Let's face it: bear spotting's easy, but trapping the quarry is a bigger challenge. Let him who claims no need of new ideas just skip the Cruising Tips Page; all others should stop in and share their favorite tip for tackling this hairy problem.