As I was going through the pictures on my mobile phone today, I found a picture I took of some teddy bears that I remembered were set out at Starbucks during the time that Akeelah and the Bee was released in 2006. Since the movie was a co-production of Starbucks, one of their marketing methods included placing spelling bee cards around the store, giving customers the chance to learn more about some unique words and to keep the movie in mind.As I looked closer at the picture, the word on the spelling bee card placed in the midst of the teddy bears sitting at the foot of the counter at Starbucks caught my attention:
I didn’t realize that Starbucks’ teddy bears needed such loving care!
As I thought about, I recalled an episode of Star Trek in which Mr. Spock described his childhood Vulcan teddy bear—also known as a sehlat—a living, giant teddy-bear-like creature with six-inch fangs, indigenous to the rainforests of Vulcan’s southern hemisphere.
Perhaps Starbucks imports their teddy bears from Vulcan, since most coffee beans are grown in the rainforests of Earth’s southern hemisphere, making the sehlats right at home.
As Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”
