Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Lions tigers and bears oh my

Bear - a killer bear (All flesh eating predators kill. Those that happen to try out a human meal are called killers. Why is that?)

I started reading this non-fiction book, “Elastic” (an Amazon book link). In it the story of Timothy Threadwell is given as an example of a person on the far end of the novelty-seeking spectrum or a “sensation-seeker”. Maybe just a sign of me getting old but the younger generation seems to have an abundance of sensation-seekers.

Any chance you heard of Timothy Threadwell? The 2005 documentary “Grizzly Man” was about him. I didn’t see that movie and first heard of him was in this book. So Timmy (I suspect he did NOT go by Timmy) went searching for a new thrilling adventure after years of drug misuse. He found Alaska and an area full of grizzly bears. He spent many summers there living among the grizzlies. He claimed he had discovered the secret to surviving with them. Not long after he announced his talent, he and his girlfriend were attacked and eaten by a bear.

I believe this is an example of extreme overconfidence of one’s abilities.





I can live with stuffed bears

I’m not on the yellow brick road. I’m just on the web. I have been on brick streets and found them not very smooth or long lasting.

While traveling on this web road a podcast was suggested. Not being a big fan of podcasts, I thought the suggested one by Radiolab, called “More Perfect” appeared worthy of a listen. It’s a series about the US Supreme Court. I listened to a very interesting story about RBG’s case that opened up the idea of gender discrimination. I plan to see the movie RBG soon.

What does RBG have to do with a bear? Nothing best I can tell. However, the iconic Supreme Court justice does have a connection to beer (just one letter difference! how does lions, tigers and beer sound?).

Back in the mid 1970’s when RBG was with the ACLU a case came up involving beer and discrimination in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma had an “odd” (stupid, who-the-hell-thought-of-that-idea) law that prohibited males from buying beer until they were 21. However, the same law said females could buy beer after age 18. Many girlfriends were persuaded to buy beer for their boyfriends during that time. One guy decided to challenge the law in court. The case Craig v. Boren went to the Supreme Court. It was the first time the court imposed what is known as "intermediate scrutiny" on laws discriminating based on gender. I take that legal stuff to mean the court started to actually review laws that possibly contained gender discrimination.

Next time I open a cold one I will remind myself that drinking beer was in the chain of events that brought us the #MeToo movement.

Oh, don't waste beer on a grizzly. They might just throw the beer and eat your face. I don't think they discriminate either. 

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