Friends! Bears! Brethren! It was recently brought to our attention that some of you signed up for this newsletter assuming it was a monthly or, dare you say it, weekly concern. Obviously, we'd all love to return to the blissful time before where this newsletter was weekly (November 2016, say heyyyy), but employment and obligations and the general daily stress of ~gestures wildly about~ all of this have prevented us from returning to a more regular publishing schedule. And what are schedules but obligations to be broken? What are rules but limits to be tested? What is time, but a socially constructed limit meant to be a regular segment on a Cleveland television station? Indeed, we remember the beginning of this all, when it seemed like the mere idea of spending all your time inside of the walls of your home would be a fun summer camp sleepover style frolic. Sigh. Now, you get in fights with your loved ones and near ones and imagine that none of this will ever end and we'll all be trapped forever and none of the grown ups will ever show up and everything will always be bad, forever, the end. Truly, it's okay to feel sad. It's okay to be confused and angry. Hell, it's okay to scream! In fact, if that will make you feel even partially better, for a small amount of time, I encourage you to do so. Everybody is dealing with this as best we can, and even if not everybody is necessarily making the best choices at every moment, most of us are trying. That's all we can ask, right? To try. Please do me a favor and keep trying as best as you possibly can. When this is all over, or resolved, or even just a bit better, we can gather in my backyard and toast each other for having made it through the terrible routine boredom of life in socially distant quarantine. In a spirit of foolhardy optimism, I purchased 16 champagne flutes from my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, which sadly had to close last week (they were going to close before COVID-19, but it was still sad). And while my fiancé and I can only drink so much champagne between the two of us, I'm choosing instead to believe that there will definitely be a day in the hopefully not-so-distant future where yours truly and fifteen of my dearest friends can gather together and clink stems. Until that day, keep on keeping on, feel free to say you're merely 'okay' even if you really aren't, and remember that the bears, of all creatures, love you. And thus...TO THE BEARS!

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DO NOT DO THIS TO BEARS
(Even If They Are This Chonk)
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Nature Is Healing. We Are The Virus, Bears Are Art
Honestly, Thank You To This Bear
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Pandas Remain Bad At Life, Part One
Pandas Remain Bad At Life, Part Two
Pandas Are Still Bad At Life, Part Three
But Actually, We Are The Virus
Mink Doesn't Have Time For Your External Concerns, Let Her Live Already
Bears Aren't Lazy, They're Crafty
You Say Round, Others Say Robust
Tub Time Cub Time, Indeed
Honestly, This Wasn't His Fault
Look, Some Of Us Don't Have Teddy Bears And Have Instead Placed Tigers, Okay?
One Person's Theft Is Another Bear's Justifiable Reclamation Of Property

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Kumamon | Ursus Iaponica mascot, a regional mascot for the Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto, a major part of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Kumamon was created in 2010 by the government of the prefecture to help promote a high speed train line. However, due to both the mascot's clearly adorable image and the fact that any potential use of its image is free, providing the use promotes "goods and services" from the Kumamoto prefecture, Kumamon is among the most popular and globally beloved yuru-chara, a Japanese type of mascot promoting geographical places, businesses and events. 

food: Kumamon enjoys the smiles, hugs and affection of his fans, but he is also known to consume millions of yen in merchandise sales (more than ¥200 billion since his birth ten years ago).

habitat: Kumamoto is a prefecture located on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, the third largest of Japan's five main islands. In Japanese orthography, the prefecture's name literally means "origin of bear," making Kumamon the bear mascot of a region named after bears themselves.

(Source: Wikipedia) 

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