Bear with me. Or, bears with me. Well, not really with me. But on the list. Yes, Themed Things Thursday¹ is coming out of hibernation, as I come crawling out of my work-induced cave of fatigue and grumpitude. And what better way to come out of a cave than being pursued by a whole lot of bears?
Some Bears ²
Winnie-the-Pooh: Pooh has to top any list of bears in my book. The bear from the books by A. A. Milne. (I prefer not to think about the Disneyfied version.)
Grizzly Adams: A TVshow about a man and bear.
Gentle Ben: A lesser-known show about a boy and a bear.
Grizzly Man A movie about a man who decided to go and live with bears. Eventually, the bears tired of him. From what I understand, he met a…um…grizzly…end.
Yogi Bear: A cartoon about a bear, smarter than the average bear, so he says. Stole pic-a-nic baskets. Yogi Bear was always allegedly “in the ranger’s hair.” But I don’t believe he ever actually ate the ranger. (I watched this show as a kid, but I’m not sure I liked it. I feel like I felt some empathy for Boo-boo Bear, the side-kick.)
Goldilocks and the 3 bears:
The classic fairy tale of breaking and entering. While a family of bears is out for a walk while their porridge cools, a little girl heads into their house where she steals their food and breaks some furniture.
Bears are also prominent in several other fairy tales, like Snow White and Rose Red.
Bear Snores On: A kids’ book (by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman) about a bear who snoozes through a party in his cave, when various other animals sneak in to get out of the winter storm.
There are a whole bunch of other bear books for kids, several of which are berry-oriented, like Blueberries for Sal, Jamberry, The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear.
bear hug: A hug characterized by a real squeezing of the arms, rather than just a symbolic arm-wrapping. As one might imagine it would be like if hugged by a bear. Though without the mauling.
“B is for Basil, assaulted by bears:” A page from The Gashleycrumb Tinies, Edward Gorey’s alphabetic masterpiece.
Fozzie Bear: a muppet who likes to tell bad jokes. (Wocka, wocka, wocka.)
fuzzy wuzzy, a children’s rhyme:
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very Fuzzy, was he.
“Bears Discover Fire:” A Hugo Award-winning short story by Terry Bisson in which bears…discover fire.
Bears are fairly popular mascots for sporting teams, especially brown bears, or Bruins (cf. the Brown University Bruins, UCLA Bruins, the Boston Bruins, or the Chicago Bears. And cf. also “da Bears” sketch from SNL)
teddy bear: A popular type of stuffed animal, named for Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
Gummy Bears: fruit-flavored, brightly-colored, gelatin-based candies shaped like little bears.
¹ Yes, I realize it is now no longer Thursday. But I ran out of time, and I’ve had this draft going for over a week.
² This list is about bears, not bears…
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collecting tokens 
“hey boo-boo!”
I can hear it in my head….
Gorey! I love Gorey! You too?
I used to watch Gentle Ben. My Gram was famous for reciting “fuzzy wuzzy” ad nauseum.
I’m big on the Panda and Pooh. Not to be confused with Poo. Which my kids are big on.
what about bare ass naked?
oh, wait.
Remember this guy who was born at the Berlin Zoo last year?
Knut
Beary good. Beary good indeed.
omg, did you just drop the ‘gashlycrumb tinies’??? oh, yes you did. color me giddy! my fave has to be xerxes, devoured by mice, natch:
http://users.aol.com/emarko/x.html
We are very big Pooh fans, even if he was a bear of very little brain. I also do a great Boo-Boo impression.
is cookie monster a bear? or just a blue thing?
Care Bears! :)
And my dad always said the “fuzzy wuzzy” rhyme too.
Painted-
Ah, yes. Now that you mention it, I can hear it, too.
magpie-
I do very much love Gorey. He is one of my idols.
Mad-
I’m not sure I ever saw Gentle Ben, but I was vaguely aware of it.
Julie-
Oh, those girls do have a sense of humor. (And I like pandas, too. I tend to forget that they are actually part of the bear family. I just think of them as pandas.)
jen-
Yeah, that would be another list.
azahar-
No, I hadn’t seen him. Damn, polar bears are cute.
Kyla-
Glad you enjoyed it. And were even prompted to pun!
fireweaver-
My favorite might be Neville, who died of ennui. But it’s hard to choose favorites. At one point, I had the whole book memorized.
flutter-
I think of cookie monster as more of a blue creature than a bear.
dragonfly-
Ah, Care Bears. I don’t know why, but they scare me a little bit.
what about polar bears???
aw! such a cute bear
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