By Staff
Arthur McLean
Ever hear the old one about drinking like a fish? How about like a bear?
From a story published by the Reuters newswire, a black bear was found, allegedly passed out in a Washington state campground after partying with campers' beers.
It's estimated the 2-year-old black bear drank about 36 beers. Apparently suffering no ill effects from so much alcohol, the bear returned the next day.
Since the bear posed a potential danger to campers, park rangers set a trap for the bear using doughnuts, and yes, beer. He's since been relocated. There's no word yet on what fraternity he plans to rush in the fall.
Poor bear. I can hear Mrs. bear now. "You said you were going salmon fishing! But instead of coming in stinking of fish, you come in stinking of beer. It's going to be a long, cold hibernation for you, mister."
This bear's apparently not simply a beer guzzler either. He passed up a mass-market brand for a local, Washington mircrobrew. There's a joke in that bit of information, but I'm not going there.
There are some lessons here, depending on your point of view. One, if you don't drink, you don't have to worry about waking up next to a hung over bear in the morning. Or, don't bring high-priced beer camping.
Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the term party animal.
Olympics update
Did you see the men's 4×200 relay between the Americans and Australians? Now that was drama.
On the plus side, NBC has so far avoided tripping the Costas fatigue meter. Part of that may be because I haven't been able to watch much of the Olympics, but it seems that the good Mr. Costas has a role more along the lines of making sure things move along from one event to the next.
On the down side, I can't understand why NBC insists on putting the events together like its happening live. Athens is only 10 hours ahead of Central time in the states. By the time you watch Michael Phelps win his gold medal, it's about 4 a.m. in Greece. I guess we should never underestimate the power of willing suspension of disbelief.