४ फेब्रुवारी, २०२२

On having a soft spot for gummy bears and being a soft spot for real bears.

I'm reading "Learning to Love Solitude (and Hate Oatmeal) on a 15,534-Mile Canadian Trek/For six years, the filmmaker Dianne Whelan hiked, biked, paddled, snowshoed and skied from the Atlantic to the Pacific and north to the Arctic. Here’s what she learned along the way" (NYT).

"I won’t be eating oatmeal ever again in my life. Ever. Throughout the day, I had a snack bag with trail mix and dried fruit and cheese and crackers and nuts. And of course, chocolate, and I have a soft spot for gummy bears. Dinner was instant noodles, pasta, carbs. At the beginning, I was nervous about bears and trying to keep a clean camp. I met many, many, many bears and 98 percent were kind and wonderful to watch. I never carried anything but bear spray for most of the journey. When I went to the high Arctic, I carried a gun and had to use it once because I had a bear come into my camp. My partner was with me. She picked up the gun and fired a couple of warning shots and we quickly packed off into the canoe and realized we didn’t spill our coffee."

That article is from last August. I just ran into it today because — as described here — I was searching the NYT archive for the use of the word "sherpa" to mean something other than a person within the ethnic group called Sherpa. This article — with the line "Very few get up that mountain without a Sherpa" — is not an example of what I was looking for.

१० टिप्पण्या:

Quaestor म्हणाले...

How many are many, many, many?

Many, many, many, many minus one?

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

She has got to be one tough broad...good for her having so many adventures and memories...

Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...

I’m not as trusting. I carry a 10 mm G20 with bear loads when I am anywhere I might encounter bears. And, something heavier at home. Bear mace seems to work decently well with black bears, but reportedly only about half the time with brown bears. And if you get between a sow and her cubs, expect that to be the time it doesn’t.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed म्हणाले...

Did she keep the gummy bears in her pocket so they were warm and soft? Any Gen Xer knows that's where you keep them. Just ask Principal Rooney.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

and 98 percent were kind and wonderful to watch
Oh, honestly.
99+% of the people I run into are kind and wonderful as well. It's the tail end that you have to pay attention to. It's the 2% that will kill you, bear-wise.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

A doula: is a trained companion who is not a healthcare professional and who supports another person (the doula's client) through a significant health-related experience, such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion or stillbirth, or non-reproductive experiences such as dying.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

"I won’t be eating oatmeal ever again in my life. Ever."

Me neither, and I am sad about this. I love oatmeal, but I recently learned what it does to my blood glucose.

Amexpat म्हणाले...

I've done some trekking in Nepal and "Sherpa" is used there both generically for a porter and for the ethnic group. The real Sherpas are pound for pound the toughest people I've seen. They were also one of the most admirable. I remember one of them telling me that when working as a guide or porter in the Himalayas he was a servant of the job not the person who hired him.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Yeah, Bears are the greatest guys in the world, until they attack you.

Leora म्हणाले...

My husband and I and one of my employers have used the word sherpa to mean someone who is lugging stuff around. Not uncommonly it was me with the laptop and presentation materials or excessive luggage. It was in use in my business and friend circle in that way. There may have been a book or movie source