I mean, who wouldn’t? What with the potential of Georgia election interference and possible RICO charges landing on the sculptured fluff of TFG’s head, is it any surprise that Nixon’s Ghost has made yet another appearance?
Honestly, it is a mystery to me on how we are going to get out of this mess. Naively, I thought when Mittens lost in 2020, he would blow off some steam and then fade into oblivion. Hoo boy! What the hell have I been smoking? Nothing, that’s what. I’m not sure how I am going to survive this next two years. Pass the cake!
Birthday week is coming up for Pinky, Bubba, and Bikkie! I have not figured out what I will do to celebrate, but I might run some of my favorite ‘toons of the early birthday seasons of the three younger DC cubbies over at my Substack installation.
Be the Bear Bob T we will get through this somehow Panda
We can only hope there will be consequences for Mittens and all his minions. In the meantime, another career criminal has been taken the streets. Or is that trails? (Gift Link)
Will Mittens’ lawyers show up as required to Judge Chutkan’s court? I guess we’ll see. meanwhile, Hank the Tank (aka Henrietta) is going to face some consequences!
I bet she’ll be interviewed on ZooNooZ first, though!
Hey everyone, friends to bears and all. Popping in on a Friday with a sad announcement. I just learned that my dear friend, friend to bears, and especially friend to Princess Pinky Bao Bao has departed from this world.
Judy Young was among the first of the panda people I met IRL when I stepped out from behind the ‘toons to go to the National Zoo to meet the real life panda fans for the first time in 2012. Tai Shan had already moved to China. Pinky Bao Bao had not yet been born. I remember coming to the zoo, going to the Panda House and Cyndi Anderson picked me out of the crowd with her innate panda sense.
Judy was among the people who I met that day, there in the back room at Lillie’s restaurant, just beyond the gates of the zoo. In the 11 years since we met, Judy has been a staunch supporter of all my creative pursuits. She hosted me several times when I visited DC. She was an extremely talented photographer, and like the panda whisperer Mollie Rivera, had an unerring instinct for soulful photographs of our beloved bears.
The real world is a little poorer today. I am reminded that life can be short. That we never know when our last chance to tell someone how much they mean to us and how much they have added to our life. I am reminded that I have one last person in my corner, having been so careless as to let them slip off the earth with no word of farewell.
I hate that the pandemic years robbed me of almost 3 years of seeing my friends at zoos around the country and the world. I’m mad that I won’t get to see her when I hope to visit our pandas one last time before they go to China. I’m sad she won’t have another chance to go to China and see the pandas.
Fuck cancer.
As you know, pandas are big fans of Shakespeare.
If you feel like it, please feel free to share your thoughts and memories of Judy Young in the comments. I know I’m not alone in being devastated at the news that she is gone.
Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day for all who celebrate. It seems like we have both a lot to celebrate (TFG is NOT the “President”!!!) and much to mourn.
In the last year SCOTUS has taken a sledge hammer to rights we thought were ours for the rest of time. The right wing is doing their best to dismantle justice, education, and the right to live your life without being discriminated against. Smarter people than me have explained what is happening. as always, I recommend Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, Teri Kanefield, the Strict Scrutiny podcast, #Sisters in Law podcast and The Daily Beans (and their associated Clean up on Aisle 45 & Jack) if you want to know what’s going on.
As I write this on the evening of July 3rd, people are setting off fireworks, which I can only pray are being set off over the water instead of the bone dry woods surrounding my house. This is probably what it sounds like in Kyiv. If my house is consumed by flames, at least I will have scheduled this post! I’ll let you know!
Democracy is not a spectator sport. At the very least, we need to vote. If you have the time and energy, see how you can get involved. Check out the very excellent organization Run for Something and Vote Save America.
Panda on!
And since it’s our country’s birthday, we should have CAKE!!!!
There have been so many stories of bears in the Nooz lately. Are the bears being especially naughty? Or are there just more people filming the naughtiness of bears since almost everyone has a camera in their pocket?
Whatever the reason, we have bears coming out of our ears! (Which is better than hair coming out of our ears…) But here at The Panda Chronicles, we say, you can’t have too many stories about bears! Here, to tell you about bears and play a little Nooz quiz, are some of our favorite bears: Frank and Mikey (an don’t forget Pookie!) on a show we are calling;
Wait, Wait, Don’t Eat Me
Can you tell I listen to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me?
I do apologize for leaving our storyline involving Bikkie, Pookie, and PPJ up in the air (so to speak) but they will be fine. Mommee Mei and Josie are having a nice cup of tea. Pinky is trying to think of a good story, and I’m *pretty* sure that when Mikey got airsick, he didn’t hit anyone walking below the balloon.
But!
There is such exciting NooZ I could not resist! Here, just in time for You Know Who’s arraignment in NYC….
We are trying so hard to treat this with the seriousness it requires, but….
Pinky has a point, but it’s probably not the one she thinks it is.
Uh oh… did someone poof in?
Can we hope this year is not as bad as last year? Yeah…we can hope…
Catch up with Lunar New Years (with the Pandy Kindy) past over at my Substack! Celebrate Lunar New Year with the Panda Kindergarten! What could possibly go wrong?
Be the Bear! Bob T nobody expects the panda kindergarten Panda
I know I tend to re-use names. For the first couple years of my descent in to Pandaholism, all my panda stuffies were named “Bob”. We will try to differentiate between the Seattle Pookies, and Bikkie’s friend from Alaska, Pookie.
I’m sure we’ll manage!
And while I really hate leaving the island to go into civilization, I am determined to shepherd the Pookies at The Woodland Park Zoo through their cubbyhood! I know I should not bring this up, but we could be looking at a temporarily (we hope it’s just temporary) panda-less existence here in the US. Memphis’s pandas leave near the end of this year, and the Pandalanta Pandas and the DC pandas contracts are running out. There is still no word on whether pandas will return to SanDiego. The pandemic put a definite crimp in the budgets of the zoos and the US is not getting along particularly well with China.
We are going to have to fall in love with some different sorts of bears.
It means it’s time to make some New Year’s resolutions! Or is it?
I don’t know…is it really productive to look at all the ways you failed last year and say you’re going to fix those things, except you’ve been making the same resolutions for…oh, I don’t know…50 years and you haven’t done any of them yet?
Maybe I need to resolve more achievable goals. Like: Eat more cake Take more naps Don’t sweat the small stuff Embrace your inner Panda
What are you going to do next year? Who’s with me? Join the Cake Party!!!
I tried to get a new ‘toon done for today…I really did.
But I decided it was a better thing for me to spend some time painting and then a little time outside in the garden, and there might also have been a nap. Mebbee. Our story will return next week and we will find out just who was causing Mommee Mei’s landline dial phone to ring.
I want to say a few things about our beloved, fetid hellsite Twidder. I have gotten to know so many of you there and after a couple years of bumbling around there, I finally figured out how to use it in a way that made sense to me. I really hate starting new things and trying to figure out how not to lose any of my friends from the different groups I gravitate towards.
There is of course, the most beloved PandaTwitter.
That’s where I will find most of the people who dearly love our black and white bears. These are the folks that I can revel in a bit of panda improv, a fun way to get a little playfulness into our lives. Those who live close to DC generously share the photos and videos that they take when visiting our favorite pandas. If I did not have those daily reminders of how much I love the pandas and the community that has sprung up around them, it would make me sad.
Then there are my friends from the world of writing and illustrating for kids. what I’ve learned from you could fill an entire bookshelf. I know that at least some of us will find each other as we wander the internet diaspora. To @markeology, creator of the infamous #cookiepitch, I say to you, never before have I had so much fun coming up with crazy ideas for books that dare not be written.
Then there are the people I follow who are tweeting about the things I think are important.
The journalists and the legal community and other writers who are saying the things that need to be said, about fairness and inclusion and corruption and just plain evil. Twitter has been where I find those people and subjects that I need to explore further.
But with the takeover of Twidder by He Who Must Not Be Encouraged by Naming Him, I see dark times ahead. I think about my cousin Ruth’s husband Bill, whose family sent him and his sister to live in England as children in the 1930s. They left Austria while they still could. I believe some of his family was not so lucky. The tyrants and thugs who smashed the windows of Jewish merchants in 1930’s Germany have their contemporary counterparts today. HWMNBEbNH plans to let those whose transgressions on Twidder were so bad that they were suspended, back on as early as next week. He has already invited TFG back on.
As vulnerable people begin to suffer assaults by these trolls, can I really sit by and try to hide in my pleasant little corner of Twidder? I kind of don’t think so. So in the not too distant future, I will be packing my twitter posts and heading for kinder lands. Some of us have already landed on Mastodon. You can, of course, still find me here. You can even subscribe and get your panda ‘toons sent directly to your email inbox. (Signup is on the upper right of the main page, and maybe on the bottom if you are reading this on your phone.) You can also read my weekly blatherings on Substack.
I hope we don’t lose touch. Know that your support means a lot to me.
And hey! Don’t you want to find out who called Mommy Mei?
