When i was a very young child, my teddybear 'Prince Valiant' was taken by a dog, 'Nipper' and literally shredded to bits. A substitute bear was purchased, but we never bonded. I drew a superman emblem on it's chest with a Texta, and later tried to pluck it off, but the ink had permeated the fabric. The bear became a stunt-bear, mainly for re-enactments of cow-boy movie scenes where the cow-boy gets shot and staggers in slow motion before falling, some distance. The novelty eventually wore off. That bear never had a name. Many years later, at Taronga Zoo, the fluffy blonde chicken 4 year old daughter of my girlfriend was unwrapping a vegemite sandwich, and a 9 foot tall Grizzly Bear put it's nose in the air, got the scent, then instantly locked eyes in a death stare with my little blue-eyed friend. The bear's nose was dribbly wet, snorting the breeze, and then its eyes were rolling back in its head. And it was up and down like a yoyo. Next minute, it fairly effortlessly pushed its own big palm tree over, spanning the mote. The only thing stopping that bear, from getting across that mote to get that vegemite sandwich, was stupidity. My little blonde friend said "Let's go now." I took the sandwich and threw it into the mote, and we were leaving. The bear was wailing and pacing, and screaming at us, then kind of howling at the moon, type of thing. Embarrassing itself, and getting it's photo taken, and a nearby yard maintenance guy was quick to cut the palmtree, with his chainsaw, as the bear had a temper tantrum, and attacked the other bear in its enclosure. Flash, click, click, click, flash, click. And a bit later, me and Tylah were trembling with adrenaline, and giggling like a couple of kids. But why, may i ask, am i telling you, these anecdotes, Sixela? It is, because you shared, with us. Sassiandra doesn't tell us why. Is Sassy a boy or a girl, no one even knows, and obviously that is not, technically, relevant, to discussions about TSO. But You, are The TSO Bear. Sort of an identity, thing. Maybe you could be our Mascot. It's between You, and The Fox, 'El Zoro.' Or Sassy, i see a Puss in Boots, but 7% different to avoid Copyright Violations. I know what you're thinking, but no no, nobody wants an Axolotl for a Mascot, that would be bearish. Which brings us back to you. A bit like that teddy bear i didn't want, and couldn't love, a bear looking for a home. A bear that eventually my brother had hoarded for 20 years unbeknownst to me, until one fateful day. But, i digress. Anyway, before i get to the point, I think that zoo bear really, actually, if you'll tolerate my verbosity, wanted to eat my little friend. But also, that bear was kind of crazy, from being in a zoo. Bears don't want to be hosed out of their cave and paraded for Tourists. Bears like wide open spaces, where they can roam free. And bears like to hibernate for 6 months. Do you do much hibernating, Sixela? Do you ever roam wild and free? There's a big wild, wide open stock market out there to explore. Plenty of negative territory to discover. Lots and lots of stocks to be bearish about, just beyond that distant horizon. In that far away land. Somewhere out there, is a nice big dark dank cave, where a bear could take a long deep snooze. There's a teddybears' picnic, in the woods, and all the teddybears are having a wonderful time today. And you, my friend, are invited. Tell you what, put in your application, for Leave, and some of us here will mull it over, and i can't promise you anything, but let's just see what we can do. Fingers crossed. We'll get back to you.
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