Friends! Strangers! Bears of all shapes and sizes! It has been a MINUTE, and for that, we naturally apologize. Nothing like a crippling, deadly international pandemic that lasts more than an entire year and kills more than 500,000 of your countrymen to render you utterly unable to process anything fun or enjoyable for a change, am I right? What's nice, however, is that this statement from our last outpost in (checks notes) May of 2020 is increasingly correct:

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. 

Yes, the distance of this future was perhaps a wee-bit longer than any of us imagined back then, and yes, we did accidentally break one of the flutes in the months between then and now, BUT we are all looking forward to what I have seen described on Twitter dot com as 'the weirdest, horniest summer' ever, and for that, I say, Cheers! The newsletter of one of my local public radio stations mentioned that The Bears are starting to come out of their winter hibernation, which seemed like as good a reason to file up the old Important Bear News Machine and get typing (not to mention, of course, the COCAINE BEAR movie news). I hope that the last year has been, at the very least, passable for you, and that the pain and stress and societal trauma has not drifted too close to your home and loved ones. With the numbers and realities of all of this, I know that that is unlikely, and for that, I am sending each and every one of you the emotional support element that you'd best appreciate, be it a hug, or a hand, or a calm and distant nod. We are so close to at least a part of an end to this, and for that, we should be grateful, while nevertheless constantly striving for a similar finish to as many people around the world and in our very own communities as possible. And thus — TO THE BEARS!

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The Bears Remain Borderline Adorable
Bears Are Big Johnson/Weld Voters, Apparently
Really, The Number of You Who Sent Me This Is SIZABLE
This Infant Red Panda Is Basically An Adult Now, We're Sorry
Your Litter Has Consequences, Part 3,567
Tourists Come In Many Forms
Congrats To My Hometown
If You're Looking for New Customers, Do Not Discriminate
Do Not Seek Out The Bear
Mei Xiang's At Pisces
Xing Er Is On The Way, Too
This Did Happen And It Was Real
DO NOT SEEK OUT THE BEAR 
Don't Yuck These Koala's Yos, Though
Pandemic Best Thing To Happen To Appalachian Bears 
Charismatic Mega-Fauna Continue To Charismatically Mega
An Icon To All Of Us
Someone Is Ready For Their Closeup
What Is A Residential Neighborhood But A Home For Bears?
No Tweet Just Bear In River
Bus Bear Is The Best Bear
A Good Bear Is Hard To Find
Look, We're All Getting Carryout Lately, Okay?
What Is This Newsletter For, But Links Like These?
Girls Don't Like Boys, Girls Like Cars and Djungelskogs
There's Room For Everybody On the Patio
Vital IBN Predecessor
This Bear Is Every Single One Of Us
Running Is Fun, But Don't Be A Jerk
Leave The Bear Alone!
Leave. The Bear. Alone.
Facial Recognition of Humans Wasn't Enough For You, Huh
If This Isn't An Accurate Picture Of the Last Year of Human Life, Nothing Is
Leave the Bears Alone!
It Was Absolutely Not This Bear's Fault
The Woman Did Not Survive This Interaction — The BEAR Did
Congrats To This Bear
Why Can't You Leave The Bears Alone?
Not Sure How To Feel About the Fact That The Oldest Bear On Record Is Technically My Peer
Grapes And Chestnuts ARE Delicious, How Can You Blame The Bears?
Polar Bears Are Climate Activists
(For Obvious Reasons, Of Course)
Ghost Bear Skepticism Is Unbecoming
LEAVE. THE. BEARS. ALONE.
This Canadian Understands, Clearly He Reads IBN
Friends Don't Let Friends Die In A Bear Attack
This Bear Is A Big Lie Truther
The Bears! Are Left! Alone!

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Baloo | bhālū, central character in the Mogli series by Rudyard Kipling, and, consequently, the extended Disney Jungle Book Cinematic Universe, Baloo is an affable sloth bear and, somehow, wise teacher of the book's wolf pack. Apparently, there's no set understanding of what specific kind of bear Baloo actually is meant to be, but as sloth bears are in fact native to the Indian subcontinent, most Kipling scholars count Baloo as a sloth bear. 

food: As mentioned above, Kipling did not make it specifically clear what kind of bear Baloo is meant to be, and as such, his diet in the book series and film and television adaptations varies. If Baloo ate "only roots and nuts and honey" as described in The Jungle Book, the book, he would be an Asian black bear, but if, as depicted in The Jungle Book, the animated Disney film, Baloo enjoys termites and ants, he is then more likely a sloth bear as described above. Also, in TaleSpin, Baloo is just incredibly hungry for all food at all times, so really, who knows what the fictional bear eats?

habitat: In the original book series, Baloo lives in the non-specific 'jungles of India.' If this newsletter is meant to take the TaleSpin approach to this question, however, Baloo lives in the 1930s interwar city of Cape Suzette, a secluded and isolated coastal city.

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I've Been Working On This Documentary For A Year — Take A Listen?