A memorial to a Polish bear

There’s a campaign to erect a memorial a Polish bear. Well, an Iranian bear enlisted in the Polish army.

No joke.

Known as the “soldier bear” he saw action at Monte Cassino, in Italy, before being billeted – along with about 3,000 other Polish troops – at a camp in the Scottish borders.

And like any other combatant, he is even said to have had an official name, rank and number.

Now a campaign is underway to build a permanent British memorial to the remarkable bear who fought so valiantly for the Allied forces and lived out his final days in Edinburgh Zoo.

Voytek the Bear carried munitions for the troops and also discovered a spy. And his reward? Beer and cigarettes and access to the shower hut. Oh, and a retirement villa at the Edinburgh Zoo, where apparently his old comrades tried to chuck him cigarettes.

Polish veteran Augustyn Karolewski, 82, who still lives near the site of the camp in Berwickshire, said: ‘He was like a big dog, no-one was scared of him. “He liked a cigarette, he liked a bottle of beer – he drank a bottle of beer like any man.”

When the troops were demobilised, Voytek spent his last days at Edinburgh Zoo, where died in 1963.

Mr Karolewski went back to see him on a couple of occasions and found he still responded to the Polish language. He explained: “I went to Edinburgh Zoo once or twice when Voytek was there. “As soon as I mentioned his name he would sit on his backside and shake his head wanting a cigarette. “It wasn’t easy to throw a cigarette to him – all the attempts I made until he eventually got one.”

Yes, you can just imagine the Polish old soldier tossing lit cigarettes into the bear enclosure. Or did he toss him cigarettes and a lighter. If so, that’s one talented bear.

Anyway, best of luck getting a memorial to Voytek the Polish bear.

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Reminds me of that bear that lived at a gas station in Pigeon Forge, TN. It was before my time, but I’ve been told that there was a bear that lived in a cage at this gas station in Pigeon Forge. It was kind of a tourist attraction. Obviously you can’t do that sort of thing anymore, but folks would do anything to drum up business. Even cage a bear and show it off to the motor tourists. Sad really.

And like Voytek, this bear was partial to treats of a human nature. You know, junk food. Snack cakes. Peanuts. Bottles of coke and 7-up. He especially liked the coke. You could hand it into his big paws (if you were brave enough) and he’d tip it up and drink it right down.

Well, one day some drunken rednecks or maybe it was some uncouth yankees who weren’t raised to know any better gave the bear some gasoline in one of those coke bottles. Just handed it right over. They probably reckoned that the bear wouldn’t actually drink it. But it did. Just tipped the bottle up and drank it right down.

Well, that gas didn’t agree with the bear. It started frothing at the mouth and raging and rattling in its cage and throwing itself about. And to be honest, the workmanship on the cage maybe wasn’t what it should have been. Anyway, the bear got loose (scaring the pants off the drunken rednecks or uncouth yankees, depending on who’s telling the story). And it took off up the road. Back towards the park. I guess it wanted to go home. (Well, who can blame it?)

That bear ran right up the road. And the people in the cars were pulling over. It ran up past where the outlet malls are. It ran up past the all those miniature golf places that are there now. It ran past where Porpoise Island used to be. It ran on past where Dollywood is now. It just ran and ran.

It was running up toward the park and then, just about where the welcome sign is for the park it just stopped. Fell over in the road. Fell into a huddled hunk of bear right there.

And you know what happened?

…

….

….

….

It ran out of gas.

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Sorry. Sorry. My friend Vol-K told me that story one time as we were leaving the park, just as we were passing the sign and going the other way into Pigeon Forge. Man, she totally got me, too.

Years and years later she was visiting me in London and telling me about the bear scene in that horrible movie Borat and I said -“Did I ever tell you about that bear that was up in Pigeon Forge?” And she said no – and she had totally forgotten the story and I got her with it. Ha, joke revenge.

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Check out these awesome bear pics. Including this one, which should be a lesson to all gas station bears.

Welcome sign photo from Flickr user The Paradigm Shifter used under Creative Commons license.

Buddy guest blogs

Hey Coach Pearl

Are there any vacancies on your staff? Or is more formal attire required.

Or maybe with my skills, I should be applying to Coach Fulmer:

I’ll do anything:

I’ll be the mascot

-Big Orange Buddy
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Out for lunch today I overheard a father at the next table say to his toddler son “How would you like to wear a track suit like that?”

He said it like it would be some kind of joke or punishment or something.

You could tell it just slipped out. You could tell that he was thinking “Did I just say that, like that, out loud? I know they heard me.”

And I’m thinking – “Hey, we’re just at the next table. We heard you.”

And then he says to us “That’s a really nice track suit.”

Errrm….thanks. Fact is, you don’t see an outfit like that in South West London every day.

Wither Freddie?

So is the Fred campaign at an end? I bear him no personal ill will – but I do find it ironic that he seemed to do so much better before he was an official candidate. And I do agree with Knoxviews contributor Elrod that Fred’s campaign provided a distracting magnet for TNGOP cash and attention. I just hope he stays in until the 5th of February so he can continue to do so.

I am a little sad that the value of my little personal heirloom has probably already bottomed out. Any offers? No timewasters, please.

But the best thing about the Fred campaign has got to be this picture. If I’m not mistaken, I know this woman. I don’t know if this is her grandson, but I guess it must be. She’s had some bad luck lately, but this is a fantastic photo. (It’s published under a Creative Commons license under the Flickr ID Freddthompson).
There are some other great pictures of Lawrenceburg around and about because Fred’s homecoming. (The bloggers who bring us the great pics and blogs at Sugarfused and Nashville Files were there with their cameras.)

Dog bites man

I don’t really know how to tell my non-Tennessee readers just how ridiculoso this headline is:

Moonshine and marijuana found in Cocke County

And in more breaking news…

Pope confirmed Catholic
Shocking new evidence: bear poo found in woods.

Even the discovery of a stash of oxycodone along with the grass and whiskey isn’t in the least surprising. Perhaps if the police had bothered to check the back yard they might have found the chop shop and the fighting cock houses.

Thanks to KAG for that gem.

When it comes to blogging, does Knoxville ever shut up?

Knoxville Talks — what she said

They didn’t fancy our chances

This was taken before the SEC Championship game yesterday. Clearly Buddy and Smokey don’t think much of our chances. And boy, were they right – but not by much. The Vols did pretty good for themselves. I’m down, but not cussin’. Heck, considering the way things started out – I think the season ended pretty well.

And you know what was the best thing? I actually got to watch the game – via pay per view at College Sports TV. The website’s a little clunky and streaming video is never crystal clear nor very big – but I was actually watching live. Awesome.

T is for Toothbrush, T is for Tennessee

I’d rather drink muddy water, sleep in a hollow log
Drink muddy water, sleep in a hollow log
Than be down in Atlanta, treated like a dirty dog
– Jimmie Rogers

Nope. I don’t care if we are treated like dirty dogs. The point is Tennessee is playing in Atlanta for the SEC Championship. Y’all might not like the way we got there, y’all might think your team should be there, y’all might not have liked the bumpy, hard, hole pocked road to Atlanta – but we made it.

Holy Cow – who’d a thunk it after those losses to Cal and Florida and that humiliating stumble down in Tuscaloosa? Goodness, come again, who’d a thunk it after those nail biting, nauseating overtimes and missed field goal triumphs against …cough…Vanderbilt?

And if Smokey can sneak away the bone of the SEC Championship, y’all can call him a dirty dog, y’all can say we’re undeserving. That’ll be just fine.

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This toothbrush has been on reserve for a few years. It’s still in its original packaging and it sits on top of our bathroom cabinet, visible but out of reach. The Vol-in-Law occasionally asks me if it’s time to open up that toothbrush. Nope, I say, not yet. Not yet. We’ve got to wait until the right moment.

The right moment is almost here.

He asked me this week if the Vols win in Atlanta if we can open the toothbrush. Yes, I said. If Tennessee wins, I can open the toothbrush.

Brush-a, brush-a

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OK, I just want you to know, before anyone starts with any toothless hillbilly slurs that I’ve been using other toothbrushes. Orange, yes, but not any special Tennessee Vols toothbrush.

Missed it

What a monumental close one. On Saturday, the Volunteers beat Kentucky by whisper after slogging through four overtimes. What a season. Now Tennessee is playing for the SEC championship.

Of course, I missed it. My dad was visiting and even though he’s an alum, he’s not a football fan. Not in the slightest. And he told me that he was a jinx for Tennessee. If he listened or watched the game, that was it, the Vols would lose.

So, I put chose not to listen live, but hear it in the morning. I don’t know what went wrong, but I couldn’t load the game. I tried for quite some time before I gave in and watched the video highlights where they freaking gave away the outcome of the game in the first 2 seconds.

Go Vols

At that point in time

Did y’all know Fred Thompson wrote a book about Watergate? Well, he did. At That Point in Time It’s not in print anymore, but I got my grubby little paws on a grubby little copy this weekend.

See:

And yes, it’s a little rough around the edges, but the darn thing is 32 years old. (Younger than I am, though.) My dad brought it over. It had been languishing on his bookshelves for years, apparently.

It’s a signed copy, to my grandfather. He apparently thought so much of it, he passed it on to his son-in-law within a month. I guess he was a pretty fast reader.

My dad thought I’d get a kick out of it. And I have. But I’ve gotten an even bigger kick out of the fact that an autographed copy is selling for almost $750 – and that’s without the dust jacket.

My dad doesn’t want me to sell it, but it’s sooo tempting when I know the book will return to its normal low,low value after Fred’s campaign crashes and burns.

I know what my granddad would do. Oh yes, he’d sell. This was a man who sold junk antiques into his dying week and had a price tag on the walker he used to get around the shop. (For $5 more than my mom and my aunt paid for it)

If they freed me from this prison

I love cable. I’m watching Johnny Cash singing from the Tennessee State Prison 30 years ago. He’s doing a train song medley. Everybody’s hair looks horribly dated except, oddly enough, for the styles of about 90% of the prisoners.

It wasn’t just Johnny playing. but also Linda Ronstadt and Roy Clark and a comedian called Foster Brooks. Anybody remember Foster Brooks? I don’t. Is that what passed for funny back in the 70s?

Do folks play prisons anymore? Do prisoners have cable now and watch Johnny playing to inmates of three decades ago? (I guess some of those guys are still in prison.)

Wasn’t there a song about a guy who wanted to see Johnny Cash and he got into all kinds of scrapes and so forth and ended up in prison where he got to see Cash. Heh.