Bear Stew #4
Tasty Manbytes Served Steaming Hot
by Ron Suresha
With deep sadness, I note the passing of a dear friend, a wonderful man, and respected leader in the bear community: Hal Hillman, of Providence, RI. Hal was ill for quite awhile with failed kidneys, waiting for a matching transplant; unfortunately, he caught pneumonia and, while in the hospital on January 9, died suddenly of a heart attack. Hal was a visible and vital member of the New England and national bear communities. He had been an officer of the Rhode Island Enforcers, founded the Rhode Island Grizzlies bearclub, modeled in American Bear #11, held the title of Mr. Bear New England 2000, then went on to become International Mr. Grizzly 2001. He hosted the Bear Games in Providence in 2001, owned Ursa Travel Agency, and spent many years attending bear events around the USA, judging for contests, or just enjoying the comraderie of his hirsute brothers. He was always recognizable by his hirsute, sturdy frame, quick wit, and mellifluous voice. We will remember Hal Hillman as a prince among bears, and deeply miss his unique spirit.
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That primetime circuit-bearish gay-friendly comic Dave Atell from Comedy Central’s zany traveling cocktail party, Insomniac, set off my bear-dar ever since the show first came on four seasons ago. In season two, during his late-night rovings in Boise, Idaho, Dave asked several guys at a gay bar, “What do you guys call yourselves?” and flashed on a BEAR XING traffic sign; guys chimed in, “Bears!” and Dave cringed and commented as several bears got their privates pierced. The following season, however, Dave gently rebuffed a cute cubbish fella who followed Dave a while and slyly offered to “do anything” Dave may have wanted. Why this woofter expected Dave to let him blow him on national TV is pretty damn deluded, if ya ask me, but hell – give it a shot, right? If I were Dave, I’d let him. Hey Dave – if you like to party down with guys but were just shy that day – call me, OK? Otherwise, just send the cute cubs here to SpunkDaddy.
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Speaking of piercing the naughty bits, in funnybear Joel Perry’s brilliant new collection of memoir-essays, That’s Why They’re in Cages, People (Alyson Publications), the very first chapter details Joel’s sidesplitting account of assisting at a piercing booth during an L.A. pride festival. In “Stick a Needle in My I-Yi-Yi!” Joel bares his furry nips, attracting plenty of attention from the bears in the crowd. Joel is amply endowed in the comedic muscle: I nearly scalded myself reading this book in a café – every other line made me spew my latté in laughter. In any case, Joel wears his bearishness proudly, he bears his gay sensibility as a badge of honor, and he insightfully pokes fun at plenty of holy queer cows, as evidenced by wise and woof-out-loud pieces such as “Fat Fag,” “Halloween in Leather,” and “Things Mother Never Told You about Leather.” Just like Kink: Tales of the Sexual Adventurer, a new, saucy fiction anthology which your own SpunkDaddy coedited with Paul J. Willis (STARbooks Press) – Joel’s book(s) comes highly recommended, loaded with bearish references, and in stores just in time to get all the Daddybears in your life a copy for Father’s Day.
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For furry folks amused by queer linguistics, “Bear” has reached a defining moment! The word, and other bear lingo, has been included in several dictionaries, but only as slang. Slang, by the way, is defined as “language peculiar to a particular group,” which bears surely are. Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (1998) lists eight entries for “bear,” ranging from “a gruff, irritable person” and “Russian” to “poverty, misery” – even the unlikely “vulva” (it’s furry and “bites”). In the fourth sense of the first entry, we now find: “[US] [1990s] a hairy, beefy gay male.” . . . In Paul Baker’s amazing 2002 book, Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang, the word is defined as
“a gay man who generally possesses one or more of the following traits: a hairy body, beard and/or moustache, large or tubby build, muscular development, masculine behaviour. Bears are usually older than twinks (although there are no age limits). Bear culture is a development of the clone look and a reaction against the dominant twentieth century ideal of gay male beauty as a twink.”
Then we discover a wealth of bearish vo-cub-ulary: arctophile, bear chaser, bear code, behr, big bear, black bear, bruin, cave, cub, grizzly bear, grr, hirsute, koala bear, lace bear, leather bear, maul, muscle bear, otter, polar bear, ursine, ursophile, woof, wolf. . . .
Speaking of definitions, Joe, a Greek-god-sculpted musclebear tending bar in Ptown’s year-round Vault, had plenty, including this one he shared with myself and New Orleans bearpals Sgt. Boudreaux and Dale, for WOOF: “Worth Only One Fuck.”
Until next time, grrrfolks!
This column first appeared in American Bear magazine #60, April/May 2004.
