It's Not Just Stockings That Are Hung With Pride This Year

In the mail today was the annual National Geographic catalog, just in time to begin shopping for what James Lileks would call “The Holiday That Dare Not Speak Its Name“.

Tell me–what does this cover suggest to you?

Considering that catalog’s headline is “Dare To Explore”, is it just me, or are these two bears, you know, exploring, much like Willem Dafoe and Greg Kinnear in Auto-Focus? I can just picture a Gary Larson-like caption underneath along the lines of, “Dude, I’ve heard of being hung like a bear, but…damn!” And so on.

Maybe that wasn’t National Geographic’s intent, and my mind is in the gutter. But I’d like to think that somebody at NG thought about that possibility when they were laying out the Christmas Holiday catalog this year.