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There is a portion on our semi-annual inspection report of Yellowstone National Park that pertains to the young animals on display for the paying visitors of the park to observe. If you haven’t paid to enter because you snuck in when the tollbooths were closed then you don’t get to see them. Instead you will only see a pixelated area where the young animal is that completely obscures the cute baby doing its species specific antics. Those honest visitors standing next to you, who have paid their entry fees, will be standing there laughing and pointing, seeing everything that is happening clearly and with full stereophonic sound, while you see nothing but a faded vague spot in the foliage. Go pay your fees. Right now. When you’re back, if the cute little animal is still there, you’ll be able to see it clearly and with the sound restored. And next time just pay your entry fee like everybody else.    Loser.

We had a friend at one time that wasn’t from around here and had been raised speaking the Queens English, that used to say these small animals were afflicted with Terminal Cuteness. We never quite understood the meaning of that phrase but it made all the bright people in the room laugh appreciatively so we laughed too and never forgot the phrase. We think it means something like “they are so freaking cute that if they get any cuter it will make your freaking head explode” or something like that. When we tried to pin our foreign raised friend down as to the meaning of Terminal Cuteness, he would simply wave his hand dismissively as if to say,” if I have to explain it to you, you wouldn’t understand anyway”. Really smart people have a way of doing that, that is truly irritating but otherwise he was a good friend.

Well if we got the definition down right this young black bear cub was afflicted in spades. It WAS so freaking cute it might make your head explode if it got any cuter. Our line item that we needed to check off was, “Young Animals: Are they freaking Cute Or Not: Yes or No”. Well after watching its antics for hours, seeing it tumble and cavort appealingly, and trying to bite branches off the tree, and play bear of the mountain where it tried to throw its own self off the boulder, then crawl back up to do it again, and finally posing with a pine cone in its mouth while looking at everyone with an innocent expression as if to say “What, I do this all the time”, we gave in and just checked the Yes box. Our work here was done.

Note : To those of you tuning in late the following posts will catch you up on preceding events. There is no extra charge for this service, it is included in the cost of admission. We know you don’t want to miss a minute of our fascinating but undocumented report.

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/the-words-out/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/announcement-13/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/yellowstone-passes-inspection/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/ghosts-in-the-darkness/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/you-dont-see-that-every-day/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/now-are-the-foxes/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/into-each-park-some-rain-must-fall/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/through-the-keyhole/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/reflectivity/

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/resolvability/