Regular readers of Unorganized Territory know that Cook County News-Herald staff are fans of Google Doodles—the fun little drawings and animations produced and randomly offered by Internet search engine Google.
Google prides itself on marking unusual dates on the calendar. Although there are frequently special little pieces of art on traditional holidays like Christmas and the 4th of July, more often Google celebrates odd occasions like the 96th birthday of guitarist Les Paul or the 90th birthday of Gumby creator Art Clokey.
When I came into the office on March 31, my coworker and friend Bill Neil pointed out that there was a special Google Doodle. I immediately went to check it out before I was sidetracked by emails or phone calls.
I clicked my way onto the Google website to see a lovely sketch of workers constructing the Eiffel Tower. Like all Google Doodles, the Google logo is worked into the drawing. This time quite subtly, with the Google letters blending into the lattice of the tower. I decided that this is one of my favorite Google Doodles.
The reason for the special French Google Doodle? It is the 126th anniversary of the opening of the famed Parisian landmark, which made me like the Google Doodle even more. Because like the Eiffel Tower, the Cook County News-Herald is also celebrating a milestone this week. Our venerable, old community newspaper is almost as old as the Eiffel Tower! This week the Cook County News- Herald begins its 125th year of service to the community.
Apparently, not long after Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who designed the tower, stepped away from his drafting board, civilization came to Cook County. Delacey Wood launched the first community newspaper, followed by Chris Murphy, John Blackwell, Matt Johnson, Ade Toftey, Richard Base, Ken Kettunen, Jack Becklund and Steve Fernlund.
There was a brief period of time when the News- Herald was owned by Murphy McGinnis Media, a publishing conglomerate, but fortunately the paper came back to local ownership when publishers Hal and Deidre Kettunen again assumed the reins in October 2008.
Many of those years of publication have included our own Google Doodle of sorts— the News-Herald bears. Thanks to the late Ken Kettunen and his friendship with North Shore artist Howard Sivertson, the bear sketches have graced our pages since the 1980s. Ken and Howard were fishing buddies, so I’m sure the idea for the bears was hatched in a boat or in a stream.
Many readers know that “the bears” were originally created by Howard, but newcomers frequently ask about our bears. Even longtime readers sometimes ask, “How many different bears are there?”
It seems like an easy question, but it really isn’t, because since the ’80s there have been many modifications to the bears. We have record of 23 “original” Howard Sivertson pen and ink drawings—of a bear canoeing, a bear portaging; a bear in a boat (the Herring Choker); and a bear on a snowmobile (the Red Bruin). There are sketches of a Santa bear and a bear sadly hugging a Thanksgiving turkey. We have skiing bears, curling bears and my personal favorite—a bear relaxing and reading the Cook County News- Herald.
Of course, fishing buddies Ken and Howard collaborated on a number of fishing bears. We have an ice fishing bear, a summer fishing bear and a lazy bear lying on shore with his line tied to his toe.
We now have about 30 bears in our rotation as over the years, various graphic designers have tweaked the pen and ink drawings to change them as other ideas occurred to News-Herald staff. For example, our current designer Laurie Johnson has masterfully changed the fall leaf bear to a Halloween bear with the addition of cobwebs and spider. The fall leaf bear has also become our St. Patrick’s Day bear with the addition of shamrocks. The blueberry picking bear became our Easter bear with the addition of a few colorful eggs. Attentive readers might remember the Easter bear was on the front page last week.
This week our front page features the Sivertson bears battling the blaze from a cake covered with birthday candles. The birthday bears are historical in their own right. They are the last News-Herald bears drawn by Howard Sivertson. He brought out his ink pens one last time at Ken Kettunen’s request for the News-Herald’s 100th anniversary.
So now you know the story of the News-Herald bears. We are so grateful to Howard for drawing the delightful birthday bears and all of the others. Yes, perhaps we should have used his blueberry picking-turned-Easter Egghunting bears on front this week. But we couldn’t. We had to revive the birthday bears in honor of the beginning of our 125th year. Stay tuned for cake!
There is no line between fine art and illustration; there is no high or low art; there is only art, and it comes in many forms.
James Gurney
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