Thursday - 2:28 p.m.

Lobby Bears Mystery Deepens

We like a good mystery. The first bit of the evidence occurred as we listened to the track Painters Paint on the fabulous High Llamas album Cold and Bouncy.

The lyrics begin:

“They stumbled about/the Lobby Bears (unintelligible)/forgotten inside the hour/and what did they (unintelligible – sounds like “cave”)?/the painters paint/all those sad old scenes/take the dust she (unintelligible)/this old (unintelligible) town…

Well, it certainly seems like it could be about Teddy and Nesbitt. All that stumbling about and forgetting things is very familiar. We don’t know who “she” is and what “she” is doing, perhaps dusting. The unintelligible lyrics are also reminiscent of Nesbitt, who is known to mumble. Strangely, there is another track on the CD called Lobby Bears but there is no mention of stumbling, forgetting or other bear-like activities.

We had no responses to yesterday’s quiz question so we did some research. There are man veiled references to Lobby Bears, usually separated by a comma, such as:

“Its central focus, a sculptural sphere suspended above the lobby, bears nameplates from newspapers worldwide; a marquee circles it, flashing current headlines…”

or on another page “We disobeyed the sign and climbed the stairs. From the mezzanine it’s clear that the downstairs lobby bears a lot more foot traffic than it was ever meant to…”

It’s all a bit weird, obviously, as all the other Google, Boogle and Dogpile searches kept throwing up the same mysterious references but nary an explanation in sight.

By coincidence, the day we asked the question ”What is a Lobby Bear?”, we were watching the last episode of Band of Brothers on DVD when we saw a disturbing sight. In the foyer of a plush Austrian hotel in Bertchesgarten (where the Nazis stayed) was a large black bear, stuffed, paws akimbo in the classic “grrrrr” pose. We figured, oh right, bears in a lobby, thus “Lobby bears”. Not so fast, buster. Would it have been a coincidence that the stuffed bear in question was black and that the Nazis liked black uniforms? Or that the bear had a striking resemblance to Herman Goering?

We think not.

And then there is this last piece of evidence in the mystery. We recalled suddenly late at night that Salvador Dali used to have a stuffed bear in the lobby of his house. He used to hide behind it and growl at people as they came in the front door and try to convince them that the obviously dead bear was still, in fact, alive.

Hmmm.

bears in history - future bears

“This diary cracked me up, completely, perhaps the oddest diary I have ever read. I'm not sure if it's a takeoff on something or someone that I have somehow missed. Regardless, TEZNEZCO! chronicles the adventures of two bears and describe them as if they are a minority of some sort. The writing is disturbingly matter-of-fact as if it is perfectly normal to be writing about these bears as people. I like it; it's pleasantly novel" - Diaryreview

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