Ode to Rare Bear

[ZacYates]

Inspired by Jack Ridley's opening monologue in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff I wrote this after having the idea clanking around in my head for a long time. I thought it was better to give it its own thread rather than detract from the good work being done in Before it was Rare Bear.

With apologies to screenwriter-director Philip Kaufman!

"There was a bear that lived in the desert. He hibernated in his cave for 51 weeks of the year, resting silently, biding his time until awakened to face the contenders to his title.
"Over the years he'd been messed with in ways you couldn't imagine to make him faster. They said whoever challenged him could not win without a serious fight. Their engines would smoke and sputter, the temperatures and pressures would hit the redline, and they would have to concede defeat or their engines could blow.
"The number of men who could tame the bear and ride him to victory could be counted on one hand with fingers left over. And for that one week a year those men came to the desert in Nevada to ride the bear.
"They were called race pilots. And everyone knew their names."

[knot4u]

Re: Ode to Rare Bear

Inspired by Jack Ridley's opening monologue in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff I wrote this after having the idea clanking around in my head for a long time. I thought it was better to give it its own thread rather than detract from the good work being done in Before it was Rare Bear.

With apologies to screenwriter-director Philip Kaufman!

"There was a bear that lived in the desert. He hibernated in his cave for 51 weeks of the year, resting silently, biding his time until awakened to face the contenders to his title.
"Over the years he'd been messed with in ways you couldn't imagine to make him faster. They said whoever challenged him could not win without a serious fight. Their engines would smoke and sputter, the temperatures and pressures would hit the redline, and they would have to concede defeat or their engines could blow.
"The number of men who could tame the bear and ride him to victory could be counted on one hand with fingers left over. And for that one week a year those men came to the desert in Nevada to ride the bear.
"They were called race pilots. And everyone knew their names."

That's pretty cool. A long time ago someone wrote a poem about the Bearcat, I think it was called "Oso Raro, The Baddest SOB In The Valley". I used to have a copy of it and I've searched for it online but I've never been able to find it. I'd guess Big Jim or BCIV probably have a copy somewhere. I'd like to read it again.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Ode to Rare Bear

Watching from afar this thread and others touching on that Bearcat that Lyle Shelton and a ton of really talented dedicated people turned into a legendary aircraft!

Loving it!

Going to renew the lease on the server in a month and a half (or so) THANK YOU to all who are making keeping this place alive possible.

Just a note to photographers debating on uploading or linking when they display photos. Unlike many message boards, because we are on a dedicated server with huge storage capacity, really just like your personal computer, we can even add storage in hard drive quantities as needed.

Server= A powerful computer connected to the internet used as a web server... anyway, just trying to explain the scope of our storage due to spending the extra bux (lots) to have the freedom to do so!

Anyway... just dropping in for the moment, in the middle of making BeerNazi happy in Vegas detailing her new dwelling here..

You guys are doing a very nice job of self-moderating... this is heaven!