image, via wikipedia

Uh oh, it’s bears-in-the-streets time again: two bears were spotted at two different elementary schools yesterday, causing all games of tag to halt and turn to inside rounds of heads-up 7up [P-I]. This is the time of year that mama bears kick their freeloading adolescents out to forage on their own, except that most of the places they would like to be are already taken up by people. Maybe these bears just wanted a turn on the swings before it was time to go looking for lunch.

This time last year there was a bear in the University District that was accidentally killed with a combination of too many tranquilizers and too many Tazers [mb]. This year’s bears, apparently, just dawdled back off into the woods.

Black bears are probably not going to want to eat you, not unless you look especially like some berries or perhaps a fawn. However, if they do want to eat you (which is rare, with 56 documented attacks in 100 years), playing dead will probably not work, because black bear attacks are usually predatory [wiki]. What I’m saying is, if it’s in your yard going through your trash or stealing honey from your beehives, don’t go out and pet it. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has a few guidelines for what to do about bears–put trash in wildlife-resistant containers, wash barbecues, and so on.