I just can’t quit this cat…or Nixon’s Ghost
I also have a new thing I wrote over on Substack! Go read it for a laugh and to feel morally superior to my pathetic housekeeping abilities.
Be the Bear
Bob T I told you I don’t have any classified documents Panda
It is futile to resist the pookiness of the Pookies. Don’t even try!
It is a sad fact, that when bears come into contact with people, the bear is often the loser. When I visited the Calgary Zoo a few years ago (in the “before times”) their resident grizzly bear was a many times offender. They had his rap sheet posted outside his enclosure. He was one of the lucky ones. Instead of being killed for his many incursions on cars and garbage cans, there was a place for him at the Calgary Zoo, where he has lived a long and peaceful life.
Pookie Two’s mom, from Montana, was not so lucky. She had become habituated to grazing in garbage cans, and while we could only hope that she might eat a certain congresswoman from Colorado, she won’t get the chance. But don’t tell Pookie Two. She thinks her mom moved to a farm upstate. Do you want to be the one to tell her?
I didn’t think so.
Be the Bear
Bob T I hardly ever eat out of trashcans Panda
I know I tend to re-use names. For the first couple years of my descent in to Pandaholism, all my panda stuffies were named “Bob”. We will try to differentiate between the Seattle Pookies, and Bikkie’s friend from Alaska, Pookie.
I’m sure we’ll manage!
And while I really hate leaving the island to go into civilization, I am determined to shepherd the Pookies at The Woodland Park Zoo through their cubbyhood! I know I should not bring this up, but we could be looking at a temporarily (we hope it’s just temporary) panda-less existence here in the US. Memphis’s pandas leave near the end of this year, and the Pandalanta Pandas and the DC pandas contracts are running out. There is still no word on whether pandas will return to SanDiego. The pandemic put a definite crimp in the budgets of the zoos and the US is not getting along particularly well with China.
The Pookies just might be able to be the bears…
Panda On!
Bob T a bear by any other name Panda
I don’t know…is it really productive to look at all the ways you failed last year and say you’re going to fix those things, except you’ve been making the same resolutions for…oh, I don’t know…50 years and you haven’t done any of them yet?
Maybe I need to resolve more achievable goals. Like:
Eat more cake
Take more naps
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Embrace your inner Panda
What are you going to do next year? Who’s with me? Join the Cake Party!!!
Be the Bear
Bob T pass the frosting Panda
Don’t forget to check out the finale of Beary Poppins! It’s over on my Substack Noozletter!
Keep your Indictment Advent calendar handy!
Be the Bear
Bob T hurry hurry hurry Panda
Don’t forget to check out the re-run of Beary Poppins over at my Substack NoozLetter!
I swear I may have to make some resolutions about getting my ‘toons done a little more in advance instead of…um…2 hours after I usually try to post.
Crocodiles may not be drawn to scale.
Be the Bear!
Bob T You can find me over at Heffalump Panda
Have you seen the annual replay of It’s a WUnderful Life over at Substack? Well what are ya waiting for?
While the Zoo Director sorts out Pinky’s “modifications” to yard three, we have a very important story to cover at ZooNooZ.
One might have to ask oneself, is replacing feral swine with crocodiles an improvement?
Be the Bear
Bob T is that a log, or…Panda
I tried to get a new ‘toon done for today…I really did.
But I decided it was a better thing for me to spend some time painting and then a little time outside in the garden, and there might also have been a nap. Mebbee. Our story will return next week and we will find out just who was causing Mommee Mei’s landline dial phone to ring.
I want to say a few things about our beloved, fetid hellsite Twidder. I have gotten to know so many of you there and after a couple years of bumbling around there, I finally figured out how to use it in a way that made sense to me. I really hate starting new things and trying to figure out how not to lose any of my friends from the different groups I gravitate towards.
There is of course, the most beloved PandaTwitter.
That’s where I will find most of the people who dearly love our black and white bears. These are the folks that I can revel in a bit of panda improv, a fun way to get a little playfulness into our lives. Those who live close to DC generously share the photos and videos that they take when visiting our favorite pandas. If I did not have those daily reminders of how much I love the pandas and the community that has sprung up around them, it would make me sad.
Then there are my friends from the world of writing and illustrating for kids. what I’ve learned from you could fill an entire bookshelf. I know that at least some of us will find each other as we wander the internet diaspora. To @markeology, creator of the infamous #cookiepitch, I say to you, never before have I had so much fun coming up with crazy ideas for books that dare not be written.
Then there are the people I follow who are tweeting about the things I think are important.
The journalists and the legal community and other writers who are saying the things that need to be said, about fairness and inclusion and corruption and just plain evil. Twitter has been where I find those people and subjects that I need to explore further.
But with the takeover of Twidder by He Who Must Not Be Encouraged by Naming Him, I see dark times ahead. I think about my cousin Ruth’s husband Bill, whose family sent him and his sister to live in England as children in the 1930s. They left Austria while they still could. I believe some of his family was not so lucky. The tyrants and thugs who smashed the windows of Jewish merchants in 1930’s Germany have their contemporary counterparts today. HWMNBEbNH plans to let those whose transgressions on Twidder were so bad that they were suspended, back on as early as next week. He has already invited TFG back on.
As vulnerable people begin to suffer assaults by these trolls, can I really sit by and try to hide in my pleasant little corner of Twidder? I kind of don’t think so. So in the not too distant future, I will be packing my twitter posts and heading for kinder lands. Some of us have already landed on Mastodon. You can, of course, still find me here. You can even subscribe and get your panda ‘toons sent directly to your email inbox. (Signup is on the upper right of the main page, and maybe on the bottom if you are reading this on your phone.) You can also read my weekly blatherings on Substack.
I hope we don’t lose touch. Know that your support means a lot to me.
And hey! Don’t you want to find out who called Mommy Mei?
Be the Bear!
Bob T don’t forget me! Panda
One minute He who must not be Offended is firing all the people who actually know how to do anything, and the next minute he is trying to hire them back because he doesn’t know how to the run the joint. Hard to decide whether to stay or go. So many people and pandas that it’s my only avenue of contact, weighed against knowing how abusive he is being to the people who work there.
I’m sure Pinky would never behave like that.
Have YOU been bearified?
Be the Bear!
Bob T tweet ya later Panda
Will we change Mittens to a jellyfish? Hmmm…I think he needs to be something more dangerous. Maybe he will just be represented by a flaming dumpster. What do you think? After all, Gary Trudeau never actually drew W in his ‘toons…
Be the Bear
Bob T is mulling things over Panda
Did you remember to head over to Substack for the last installments of The Wizard of Wu and the complete A Halloween Carol! What are you waiting for?