How They Got Here

Certainly through storms. Including a storm of controversy.

The controversy is that there are two bears running together. Where every other bear on the Poll is essentially running solo (aside from their bases, voter blocs, and Super Bear PACs of course), Hidy & Howdy are running on the same ticket.

Essentially, according to some, doubling their vote.

If their 558 votes were to be split in half, the 279 votes each would have landed them in 4th place just behind last year’s Runner Up Kodiak Bear and just ahead of Polar Bear’s 275 votes. Of course Legendary Bear Mike Ditka would have moved from Runner Up to Winner and Winnie-the-Pooh would have moved from 3rd Place to Runner Up.

So obviously there’s a lot at stake here.

And we cannot say that these concerns are not valid; we do hear such concerns.

Though these concerns would be more valid, and we would hear them more loudly, if you were to go to https://www.sweetlivinproductions.com/merch and purchase lots of Merch.

Yes, Hidy & Howdy are twins, and nothing can separate (some) twins (other than large purchases of Merch, as noted above).

And these are well-behaved bears, not just ones that smile for the camera. Their chaperone continued to praise them decades later.

These are good bears. Good twins. Sweet bears. Sweet twins. How could we separate them? (without a supporter of a competing bear buying lots of Sweet Livin’ Merch).

Where They Came From

A land of storms.

The land of Calgary.

Calgary has a history of major—and costly—storms. Over the years, headline after headline ha detailed one major and costly storm after another.

Over the years, Hidy & Howdy have weathered those storms, without complaint, to joyful and sweet success.

Including their most successful year: 2024, when they catapulted themselves to global fame by winning the World Famous Sweet Livin’ Productions World’s Best Bear Poll, 2024. In 2024, Calgary experienced a massive hailstorm, which was “the second most expensive event in Canada’s history.”

Because of these hailstorms, Calgary is has become the de facto capital of Hailstorm Alley, an area of Alberta that may be the world’s leading producer of hailstorms. There are so many hailstorms in Hailstorm Alley, that they for decades they have been looking for ways to suppress hail.

Oh, how we hope one day Alberta can become another Hammock Alley rather than Hailstorm Alley with perhaps Calgary as its capital. That is a beautiful hope and possibility that could very well come true in The Beautiful Hammock Future, where Hidy & Howdy will surely lay in hammocks, enjoying the fruits of their labor.

But that is talk for another day, another section. As this section is about from where Hidy & Howdy came.

And it is from these great land of storms they came, storming onto to the international scene ahead of more populous bears from the same region, the grizzly and black bears. Yes, Hidy & Howdy, twin polar bears, beat the 5th-place-finishing polar bear at their own game.

Yes, Hidy & Howdy went from hosting the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics to hoisting the 2024 World’s Best Bear 1st Place Trophy.

Of course, they didn’t do it alone. For there is another storm we did not mention: their storm of support, the voters that voted them in. Hidy & Howdy were a beacon of democracy during the height of the Cold War and they are a beacon of democracy now at the height of the World Famous Sweet Livin’ Productions World’s Best Bear Poll, 2024.

What’s Next For Them

Having achieved this height of success, one has to naturally wonder if these twins may go their separate ways and get married. They certainly have many options.

But they have stuck together for almost four decades now, so perhaps they will continue to stick together and look at pursuing a dynastic run the World Famous Sweet Livin’ Productions World’s Best Bear Poll. They are once again in the Poll in 2025, so it’s very possible, even likely, that they will win the World Famous Sweet Livin’ Productions World’s Best Bear Poll, 2025.

Public bookies haven’t being doing odds on these Polls yet, perhaps to preserve their integrity (of the bookies themselves and the Polls). But you may be able to get odds from your local illegal bookie in a dark alley, though we don’t recommend that. #Safety #Integrity

How They Compare To Their Predecessor

They do share an 80s vibe like That Vintage Bear when we examine That Vintage Bear’s choices of technology. That Vintage Bear is likely older than Hidy & Howdy, probably having watched them host the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics from his tested television set (pictured below in his picture) well past his own days of athletic prime. And now he passes this torch of global bear dominance to the younger generation of Hidy & Howdy. For their differences, Hidy & Howdy and That Vintage Bear share the commonalities of greatness, winning, integrity, and—of course—sweetness.

The king is dead, long live the king!

Except no one dies here. And the new king is in fact a king and queen.

And they are bears.

Sweet bears.

Sweet Livin’.

Sweet, Sweet Livin’.