An Ode to Ben Johnson

A long hallway of lockers at school whisks Joey off to the Olympic Games and imagining himself in the 100-meter dash. Instead of Canadian sprinting heroes Donovan Bailey or Andre DeGrasse, Joey’s experience ends up being reminiscent of Ben Johnson. Johnson set a world record in the 1988 games – besting American Carl Lewis – until being stripped of his gold medal in disgrace after testing positive for steroids. Fortunately for Joey, instead of a nation’s ire focused on him, he simply has to endure a trip to the office.

David Attenborough Voice

Joey’s mark is in and there it is: the fact his teacher found it to be a marvellous piece of creative writing kept him from failing. And it certainly is an interesting question: would a bear who enjoys a latte to start the day have been any more believable with Sir David Attenborough presenting? Y’know, I might be inclined to believe it…

An Overactive Imagination

Joey’s presentation apparently didn’t go as planned and his teacher believes Herb might have been a product of Joey’s imagination? Uh, she may be onto something…

Groundbreaking Discoveries

It’s the culmination of the big assignment: Joey has to get up in front of his new class and present his detailed, somewhat surprising findings after following Herb around closely for a week. Herb feels pretty confident about it. What could possibly go wrong? Also, did your school have green chalkboards or black?

The Assignment

Spoken like a true parent, Herb. Joey thinks he’s got this one figured out, but I don’t know about you – I don’t think Herb is your textbook grizzly bear. This might be interesting if Joey can use his powers of persuasion here.