Fat-Bear Shaming Week, 2024

The ursine inhabitants of Katmai N.P. are again being judged for their corpulence. Really? What if we tried the same contest with the park rangers? Or cartoonists? WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED by PETER MOORE

I KNOW. I KNOW! Fat Bear Week is just good fun!

But isn’t that how the jerk in your office follows up his racist/sexist/queerist/looksist/ableist/weightist/ist-ist joke?

“I was only kidding!”

Grrrrr, to quote a bear.

This sort humor is, of course, a way for unafflicted people to point and laugh at afflicted people. Or bears. Which I’ve done way too often in my past life. I was an incorrigible pointer/laugher, as my former locker room buddies might attest. That makes me want to point and laugh at myself.

As part of my penance—mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!—I’m throwing my considerable weight all of my moral force behind giving fat bears-of-size a voice. Here’s what the ursa majors might be saying, growling, and yelping, if their mouths weren’t so full they only had a chance.

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"Bears are not companions of men, but children of God." — Charles Muir

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At this point in my substack, you have lots of options:

Or not. Well, maybe…

Or even buy me a coffee or a bear beer!

Or not. Thanks for bearing being here.