The Incredible story of The Great Bear Races - Furry, greasy and very drunk indeed.

[Duncan Longhutton from Winnipeg U.S.A. emailed dwwae to see if we knew anything about the greased bear races his grandfather had told him about from his childhood.]

Bears were often used for sport in the north west of America during the Depression. People struggling financially had to find their own entertainment and many saw opportunities for fun amongst the burgeoning bear population. Bears were often painted, wrestled and in some cases raced.

Families would head to the hills in large groups to hunt these fearsome creatures. Once cornered and captured, the bear was lashed to a pair of handmade willow-wood skis and then paraded around the town in the ritualistic 'Basting of the Bear' ceremony.

During this barbaric process, the bear was greased - usually with goose fat - to reduce drag, before being pushed down the steepest hill in the area alongside a 'rival' bear from a nearby town. The losing bear was usually released back into the forest. Sadly many of these bears died from exposure and their skin was often found to have become quite crispy.

The winning bear was usually carried by the townspeople back up the hill to sit at the head of the table during a feast often of meagre food but with huge amounts of illicit alcohol available. The people drank and danced long into the night, sometimes pouring drinks directly into the mouth of the winning bear and often partying until sunrise.

The tradition carried on until the late 1930's but the police records from the period show a marked increase in the number of incidents involving drunken bears. Most notably a brawl between a bear and a church pastor in Montana resulted in severe facial injuries to both parties and rather soured the mood. Soon after, the church could no longer condone the 'Basting of the Bear' ceremonies and thankfully the practice largely died out.

dwwae presents . . . 3 FACTS ABOUT: Grapes.

Did you know?

As well as being used to make delicious wines, grapes are often used for less well known purposes!

The English writer, Vita Sackville-West often carried two grapes between her teeth and upper lip to give the impression of more defined cheekbones.

During World War I, grapes were often placed between the toes of the wounded to help alleviate trench foot.

The British formula 1 driver, Damon Hill is scared of grapes.

How long did it take to successfully invent the telephone?

Although the telephone was finally invented successfully by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, it was not the first time that such a device had been attempted.

Most notably was in 1853, when Rev. Robert Binty experimented with a device which relied on a series of pipes containing tropical insects. Binty's theory was that tropical insects had a certain "can-do attitude" which was distinct from native European insects, and which made them better suited to powering his mechanism.

He attempted to train the insects to carry distinct pieces of information, or "conversation particles" as he labelled them. A conversation particle might consist of a word (such as "the", "by" or "spoon"), a noise (such as a cough or a sniff), or a catty aside (such as "Ha, typical!") The insects would memorise these particles and then advance in procession down a long pipe and "replay" them by way of buzzing their wings at the other end. Early tests of this proved only marginally successful. When Binty attempted to relay the sentence "Mary, you are invited to eat grouse Tuesday week with myself and Mrs Binty" it emerged at the other end as "Myself and the grouse will eat you bzzzzzzzz bzzzz". Suffice to say, Mary was deeply upset by this message, and also very confused as she had never previously had any contact with the Bintys.

Robert Binty died of malaria in 1857, and although his invention was largely ignored at the time, it was nevertheless resurrected many years later and now forms the basis of O2's mobile phone technology in many areas of Wales.

Have British athletes ever been used as spies?

[dwwae received this question from Lance Gladhawk, Minnesota, U.S.A.]

For many years there has been speculation that some members of the British Olympic team present at the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow were also there to gather intelligence for the British government.

It is purported that the British sporting legend, Daley Thompson, had originally been highly trained by secret services to work alone as one of its key operatives under the codename: Typhoon Medals. A special tracksuit was designed for him with extra elastic around the knees enabling him to jump higher and further than any man had done before. Some say his moustache was grown in order to conceal a miniature radio device although we have no proof of this, it seems likely.

Thompson inadvertently broke the world decathlon record at the games which thrust him into the international limelight and thus rendered him useless as a covert operative - much to the annoyance of the British government who had spent a considerable portion of the defence budget on training him.

To add weight to this theory, a number of documents declassified in 2005 show inexplicably that members of the archery team were highly skilled in field communications, whilst the water polo team had been trained by members of the S.A.S in hand to hand combat.

Below: Rare photo allegedly of Daley Thompson AKA 'Typhoon Medals' in his special tracksuit, during a code-breaking training circa 1979.