Amuse-bouche:

“Naked” and “baked” are pronounced differently.

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Today’s Wonderful Word: “peregrinate.”

Definition: travel around, through, or over, especially on foot

People who peregrinate are constantly on the move, traveling from one location to another. You might peregrinate from Italy to Spain to France during your European backpacking trip.

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Bare with the hairy bears baking naked, making baked hares.

Bare with me = naked baking

Bear with me = be patient

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Bear with me here. If you ever plan on peregrinating through the woods, it will be good to know a bit about black bears.

Black bears by nature tend to be wary of humans and avoid people. However, if you encounter a black bear in your neighborhood or outdoors while hiking or camping or roller blading, follow these common-sense safety tips.

• Never feed or approach a bear! They won’t bear with you, though they will likely already be bare.
• Remain calm.
• Make the bear aware of your presence by speaking in an assertive voice, screaming at the top of your lungs, clapping your hands, playing music from your phone and singing along, even if you don’t know the lyrics, or making fart noises.
• Keep calm.
• Make sure the bear has an escape route. Don’t corner it. If a bear enters your home, be a good host, offer to take its coat, and ask if it would like any tea. Don’t forget to offer honey with the tea. Provide the bear with an escape route by propping all doors open.
• Be calm.
• Avoid direct eye contact, which may be perceived by the bear as a challenge.
• Never run from a bear. Instead, slowly back away.
  • Never run from a bear UNLESS it makes an intense effort to make eye contact with you, in which case it is trying to challenge you.
• To scare the bear away, make loud noises by yelling, banging pots and pans, using an airhorn, screaming at the top of your lungs, playing music from a massive speaker and singing along, even if you don’t know the lyrics, or by following the instructions already mentioned above regarding noise. Be loud but calm.
• Make yourself look as big as possible by waving your arms. If you are with someone else, stand together and raise your arms above your heads. If you are with a group, run*.
  • *Only run if you are sure that you are not the slowest of the group. To make certain of your escape, deadleg the fastest member of the group before taking off.
• If a bear stands on its hind legs or moves closer, it may be trying to get a better view or detect scents in the air. Maybe it doesn’t approve of your body spray. That’s why showering while camping is not a good idea. But that’s another topic for another day. If a bear stands on its hind legs and comes closer to you, it is usually not a threatening behavior. Usually. It could be threatening. Hugs from bears are not signs of affection. Bear hugs are deadly.
• Black bears will sometimes “bluff charge” when cornered, threatened, or attempting to steal food. Stand your ground, and be calm. Remember, if a black bear is running at you, don’t run. Simply stay calm and slowly back away. If the bear does not leave, move to a secure area in a dead sprint, screaming and shouting and staying calm.
• Black bear attacks are extremely rare. If a black bear does attack, fight back! (Judo is not a recommended fighting style.)

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Answer to Saturday’s riddle:

“Feedback” and “Boldface” are two possible answers.