A worker named Dave came to the house for an estimate and, as he left, I handed him my card, with the Bear Bones Books logo on it. He looked at the card and said, “This is a great logo. Wait a second — I know I’ve seen this logo with the bear before.”
“Thanks, glad you like it.”
“Did you design it yourself?”
“Yes, and executed with the help of my graphics and web bear.”
“It looks really familiar,” said Dave.
“Do you know about the gay and bi men’s subculture called the Bears?”
Dave replied, “No, don’t think so. But I have a photographic memory and I’m positive I’ve seen this logo before.”
“Well,” I said, “I don’t post my cards on bulletin boards around town, so I can’t imagine where you might have seen it.”
He kept staring at the design on the business card. “I think I saw it on the cover of a book somewhere.”
“But the logo has only appeared on the spine, not the front cover, of our books.”
“I’m pretty sure I saw it on the front cover of something.”
“Actually, it could have been the cover of our first catalog. But we only publish writing by and for gay and bisexual guys in the Bear community. Where would you have seen the BBB catalog?”
“My daughter is a student at Towson University. I think I saw it when I was with her.”
“Oh, my friend David Bergman is an English professor there. An interview with him, and his own fiction, is in our books.”
“I don’t know if she has him for a teacher, but when we were visiting she took us to the GLBT place on campus.”
“Oh, I see — your daughter was showing you the gay student center at Towson. David might have given them one of our catalogues.” So, I showed Dave a BBB catalog.
“Oh yeah, that must have been where I saw your bear.”
After Dave left, I realized that the BBB logo bear does not have a name. So I thought we should call him:
Bernie Davis
I hope you like our mascot’s new name.
Thanks, Dave! And David!