No idea why, but I was thinking about bears today. Here’s a bear and a half...
...he’s called 747, after the huge Boeing airplane. He is currently residing in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and has been declared the Fattest Bear, which is good because he’ll have a jolly good chance of surviving hibernation.
And so I was thinking about who should be given the title Best Bear of All Time. I’m excluding personal bears here, because we all think our own teddies are the best. I am thinking of famous bears, celebrity bears, if you will.
So we have Paddington, created by the marvellous Michael Bond. Paddington, of course, has been ricocheted to fame in the previous few years following the release of two rather excellent films, namely ‘Paddington’ (unoriginal, but does what it says on the tin) and ‘Paddington Two’ which is even less inspirational as a title, but again, why should it be anything else. I love ‘Paddington Two.’
Then there is that perennial favourite, Winnie the Pooh, and his cast of dysfunctional friends living in Hundred Acre Wood. Although a Bear of Little Brain, his creator, A.A Milne has made him one of great philosophy. I feel that a considerable amount of that philosophy was lost when Pooh turned all Disney, so I am a stickler for the original.
What about Rupert Bear? Dubious fashion choices - tartan yellow trousers are never to be advised unless you are Michael Portillo on a train - but you can’t deny Rupert’s spirit of adventur. Annoying friends, I seem to remember. I also remember receiving a Rupert Bear Annual as a birthday gift one year and being told by the giver that she had read it first and it was jolly good. Well, that sort of put me off. Is that a thing, reading a book before you present it as new to someone else? I don’t think so, not even as a nine year old.
Yogi and Booboo next, running riot and stealing picnics in Jellystone National Park. I bet Yogi wouldn’t have any problems surviving hibernation either. As an aside, my mum was known by her nieces and nephews as Auntie Booboo. Apparently, it was her nickname as a child. I did used to wonder how Booboo was somehow a derivative of the name Diana, which is her actual name. Turns out it isn’t a derivative at all. Who knew, eh?
Those are the bears with whom I grew up. I know who is my Best Bear of All Time.
Who is yours?
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