Notes From A Bear's Journey

     For some reason I've been venturing a bit into flights of fancy, gazing over a few recommended graphic "novels," which in today's world are more like elaborate comic books, novels that try to capture alternate worlds or at least try to blur the lines of our world vs. a world right below or beside us (think Harry Potter aimed at an adult audience).  Besides Neverwhere (mentioned in the last post), there's been Edena by Moebius, Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too , Hyperbole and a Half , Persepolis , and even God (okay, I threw that one in to see if you were paying attention although to read the NY Times review , one might feel that the book fits in easily with the other books). Both ventures of reading "comics" and fantasy, much less fiction in general, are out of character for me yet it has exposed me to another range of creativity, something even engineers have to delve into when dealing with the unknown...use your noggin' man, as

    The other day I happened to catch a couple of things that were unlike anything I'd seen or heard before. Derek Delgaudio's movie recreation of his off-off-Broadway play (which ran 552 times) featured such a heartfelt exposure of his life, but more importantly an awakening of the importance of each person, of how different each of us are and how we identify ourselves; what we think of our lives.  For the paid attendees, it required only one thing of them...to pick a card (hundreds were hanging on a board upon their entering) that asked "I Am" followed by a word.  The choices were all over the map, from architect to ninja, and from introvert to idiot (yes, that card was picked).  Some took it as a joke, but many would find that this was a serious play, a chance to discover yourself as the play went on.  Tears fell, some became visibly shaken, others simply marveled at how this could be happening.  How could one person make an entire audience peek so deeply into the

      Variety used to be (and actually still is, at $400 per year for a subscription) a Hollywood/show-biz insider newsletter, glossy of course and filled with all of Hollywood's inner workings, everything a Miss Whistledown* could want to reveal.  Oops, there's that word, variety.  Or various.  Or by changing a few letters a bit more you have...variant.  And my, isn't that word the news of late.  How many variants or mutations of this coronavirus will there be?  And will the vaccines and boosters work on any or all of them?  And if not, can you mix and match the vaccines from different companies since, well let's be honest, some are seemingly better than others.  My, my, it just spins the minds to think of all this...      Okay, enough of that.  The virus world is indeed changing almost daily and I won't even attempt to pretend that this or that is the "latest" information.**  A quick guide to the variants themselves came from Smithsonian ; and a video f