Lauren+Avery+a+year+in...

1903 Tedward E. Bear was born in February of 1903, conveniently right around the time of Valentine’s Day. Following the first transatlantic radio broadcast just a month earlier Tedward had high hopes for his popularity to spread internationally and be a world-renowned superstar, but for now he’d settle for being set on the desk of a New York Post reporter whose daughter had given Teddy to him as a gift to keep him company while he worked late and long hours. Fortunately for Teddy, he became smarter than the average bear amidst all the hustle and bustle. After hearing about the first transatlantic radio broadcast between Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII, Teddy’s knew 1903 was going to be a big year for technology. Quickly acquiring an interest in world affairs, Teddy kept his fuzzy behind planted where he could catch headlines rolling through the office. Just a few days after settling in, things were abuzz with chatter about the US leasing some place named Guantanamo, but Teddy was occupied elsewhere. He had turned his positioning from the print window to the window to the street. Flocks of women raced by in their Sunday’s finest to check-in to the first hotel exclusively for women, The Martha Washington Hotel (ladies night, anyone?). While he sat admiring the beautiful women laughing and strolling by day after day, he kept his ear to the paper to stay informed, incase he happened to encounter a potential Mrs. Tedward E. Bear. While waiting for such a pivotal life moment to occur, he noted that big things were happening in such a short amount of time. By March, an agreement abroad was signed to build the Constantinople Baghdad railway—further feeding into his ego that bears like him could travel the world. In the same month, the US was granted permission to build the Panama Canal, but that was nullified later on, shameful because Ted thought that the weather down there in Panama was probably nicer than the 40 degree temperatures and rain he was experiencing regularly. Spring came and went rather quietly, and by summer the office became less busy as people were taking time off to spend with their families. One afternoon, Teddy spotted a picture on the front page of a funny looking guy sitting in a strange box-on-wheels contraption with some kind of weird circular thing in his hands. The headline underneath read, “Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago—the first owner of a Ford Model A!” Teddy laughed and wondered if the Model B could be any better than the contraption he saw pictured before him. Thank goodness just a few months later, Prussia decided it would be a good idea to require licenses to drive such things. While Tedward usually took Sundays as his “lazy day,” he learned that some people did not. Frank Nelson Cole proved that 267-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for 3 years…whatever that means. Too bad those calculations didn’t help Teddy’s favorite baseball team work their way into the first World Series that year. There sure was a lot of battling going on lately—Panama decided it didn’t want to be a part of Colombia this year, and the Russia Social Democratic Labor party split into two parties, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Teddy’s head was spinning with all of the year’s happenings by the time winter rolled around. He lay on his back looking out of the office window watching snow fall from the sky when he heard a man yell, “They did it! They flew!” Once again, the office was whirling as people scurried around muttering about deadlines and asking, “what kind of name is Orville?!” The next morning, Tedward glanced at the newspaper and saw something he’d never forget, two men standing proudly beside something that resembled a wooden bird—“December 17th 1903! Orville and Wilbur Wright complete first successful powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina!” The excitement was contagious—not only could they cross land now by train and motor vehicle, but now everyone (including Teddy) could travel in the sky just like birds. Tedward E. Bear had an eventful year, although some of the stress took a toll on him. He noted that his button eye had come loose and that the stitching on some of his arms had began to fray, but he didn’t worry…As the winter weeks rolled to a close, he knew 1904 was just around the corner with many adventures ahead!