Black Bear
For Throwback Thursday, I'm going to talk about my only known [1] encounter with a bear. Somewhat oddly, it occurred at work. At the time - the summer of 2015 - I was working up in New Providence at the Murray Hill location of Alcatel-Lucent. I liked to go for a walk after lunch, and my walk would go through a small, wooded area. One day I was walking along, and I heard something stirring off to the side of the path. It sounded like something biggish, but I wasn't worried (initially) since there were a crapload of deer to be found in the area. So when I looked over and saw a Black Bear staring at me, I suddenly became alarmed. Here's my recollection of the event: The bear and I were both very aware of each other. I was trying to remember what to do in this situation [2]. I knew enough not to run. Bears can run 35 mph, and running can trigger a chase reflex in bears. I think I heard that you shouldn't look them straight in the eyes since that could be construed as a ch...