BEAR SEASON: A week ago, we had a telephone call about a group
of bears reputedly convening frequently on the hillside behind
George G. Blaisdell Elementary School on Constitution Avenue. The
group was as many as 10 bears and eight were there at the moment.
Would we come down and take a picture?

Never having heard of such a gathering of bears – three, mother
and two cubs were the most we’d ever seen – we immediately began
trying to locate a photographer who could capture this most unusual
scene.

But if you’re reading this today (during bear season) don’t
bother checking out this location. Our photographer learned it was
not a group of bears as reported. It was cattle which, after
thinking about it, makes a whole lot more sense.

Just shows you, though, that seeing is not always believing.

BIGFOOT: With that in mind – the power of an optical illusion –
we turn to recent email about the reported sighting of Bigfoot in
our region.

Nelson Haas of Emporium, self-identified artist and naturalist,
sends along this poem titled, “Big Foots”:

“I finally got to see one of dem bigfoots

This time it ain’t no scam.

‘Cause now I got me a picture,

On my brand new trail-cam.”

“Ok, it was a cheap camera.

The pictures not very clear.

But I knows that you can see it,

If you just had one more beer.”

“There’s some that say I’m crazy,

And that my minds a barren void,

But I’m here to tell you, brother,

Dat dere’s a humanoid.”

An anonymous jokester also send along this note: “I read Maxime
Harrison’s piece on Bigfoot. I’m wondering which is correct No Big
Foots or No Big Feets in the park? Can you clarify?”

We must admit to pondering this question, too. Alas, we have no
definitive answer as to the correctness of either. It just wasn’t
covered in Grammar 101.

FEEDBACK: Our column on TV in the 1950s brought this response
from Brandon Abbott of Port Allegany: “Yes, your memory is correct
about the whip crack at the beginning of Rawhide. I remember it
from years ago when I was a youngster and my Mom watched those
shows.”

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Well, one helluva lot of people don’t give one
damn about the issue of the suppression of the press.” So said our
37th president Richard M. Nixon, 1971.