Governor Grizzly loves his bear

On vacation, Arnold Schwarzenegger ran into a bear and bought it.

The New York Times had the story first, with the SF Chronicle trailing. It’s never good to trail a national paper on your local story. Those who think getting stomped on such a trivial matter doesn’t matter haven’t worked at a newspaper. A four-footed bronze animal blocking the entrance to the governor’s office qualifies as an event. The Chronicle should have had its paws all over it.

Jon Carroll’s piece is nice, but I wish the paper had sent its art critic, Kenneth Baker. Mr. Minimalism would not have been amused. When he rouses himself to lament, it is always worth reading.

Carroll the spoilsport mentioned the real problems real bears have in California. As metaphors and representations, however, they continue to thrive.

My favorite bear opens Theodore Roethke’s Four for Sir John Davies, a passage titled The Dance:

Is that dance slowing in the mind of man

That made him think the universe could hum?

The great wheel turns its axle when it can;

I need a place to sing, and dancing-room,

And I have made a promise to my ears

I’ll sing and whistle romping with the bears.

For the are all my friends: I saw one slide

Down a steep hillside on a cake of ice, —

Or was that in a book? I think with pride:

A caged bear rarely does the same thing twice

In the same way: O watch his body sway!

This animal remembering to be gay.

I am also exceeding fond of Jeffry Mitchell‘s bears. If Roethke’s had sexual congress with Winnie the Pooh, Mitchell’s would be their issue.