Mine's kind of a long story (big surprise, eh??)... I went to college at UTEP in the very early 70s... the basketball coach there was the semi-legendary Don Haskins (so legendary, a movie about him will be released in the next few months)... his nickname, of course, was The Bear.. well, I was a gym rat, and the next best thing to a Haskins groupie... I was ALWAYS talking about the guy, to the point where it annoyed my buddies-- I was a huge hoops head back then... so they took to calling me "Bear, Jr.", thinking it would offend me...
It didn't, and the nickname stuck... fast forward a few years, to about 7 years ago when I first came online... by then, the nickname has taken on a little different connotation, as I started to LOOK a little like a bear... big chest, big neck, big arms, just a big ol' torso in general, but rather short arms and legs... throw in a beard, which makes me look a little wooly, and the picture is complete...
Only thing is, EVERY forum I went to already had a "Bear" registered... it seems to be a fairly common online nom de plume... so I took a look at my now-silver hair and beard, and thought about my allegiances to the blue and silver, and Silverbear was born... I even have vanity plates on my Cherokee that read "SVR BEAR"...
Smarter than the av-er-age bear...
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