I once described "OUT" magazine as . . .

. . . "People for queers." I did this to differentiate OUT from The Advocate ("TIME for queers") to one of my straight friends.

If OUT is People for queers, then A Bear's Life is OUT for bears.

I got my first issue a couple of days ago, and it's actually pretty good. It needs a little fine tuning; a couple of the articles read like high-school writing assignments, but it's good to have a magazine featuring people I can relate to. (Are you reading this, Eurotwink-filled GENRE magazine?)

There's a large community of gay men out there who'd rather watch football or NASCAR than Barbra or Liza. We'd rather change our oil than arrange flowers. We don't wear Hugo Boss suits or polymer pants -- we wear t-shirts, flannel and blue jeans (ABL offers helpful tips on how to look good in jeans, in fact. If you have an ample posterior, a condition rampant in the bear community, get jeans that have large back pockets.) We barbecue; we don't "entertain."

At 18 bucks for 4 issues (a year's worth), it is a little pricey for what you get, but it's worth it.

And don't worry, there's no pecker shots, so you can read it in public.

FWIW: I just discovered a guy I long ago had an email friendship with, Anthony Lordi, is one of the columnists. I think it's the same Anthony Lordi anyway. My Anthony was a weightlifter. This one's little profile doesn't list weightlifting, but does mention the Scottish games.