Bear FactsA few years ago, Cal State...

Bear Facts

A few years ago, Cal State Northridge math Prof. Stephen Eberhart traded a laundry list of stress-related problems for teddy bears.

“For several years, I had a terrible time trying to get my doctorate,” Eberhart says of the time he was chasing the illusive math Ph.D., a time of hives, horrible stomach pains and a back that got so bad he finally could not stand up straight.

After many visits, his doctor pointed out that it was probably Eberhart’s life, not his body, that needed an overhaul. Once that idea took hold, the math man gave up trying to attach a Ph.D. to his name for a while and found, next door, the benefits of bearing his soul.

“My neighbor in Northridge showed me how to make teddy bears,” Eberhart says of his becoming a bear-ister, then a bear aficionado, then a friend of friends of teddy bears. His new grizzly preoccupation calmed him down and introduced him to a lot of people.

He started attending the Bear Enthusiasts All Round club dinners at the Pickwick Banquet and Entertainment Center in Burbank the first Wednesday of every month. Members bring teddys to the tables, but not all of them since some members have thousands.

The BEAR club started in Glendale in 1982 with about 13 members. Eberhart says it was the first chapter of what has become a nationwide organization.

“One of the things I liked about the dinner meetings is that you could be seated next to a librarian, an engineer, an actor, just about anyone.”

Eberhart found that bears could also work wonders in the classroom and that they had a tranquilizing effect on those whose numbers didn’t crunch.

“I found that, in a lot of classes, bringing in teddy bears and hot chocolate lessened the anxiety of mathematics for non-majors,” he says.

Getting Credit

If money, or the lack of it, is what’s making you toss and turn, you might want to check out credit guru Howard Strong’s class on cleaning it up.

Strong, a Reseda attorney and author of “Credit Card Secrets,” says he is offering the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. session March 21 at the Learning Tree University in Chatsworth because he refuses to take credit cases in his practice.

“It’s inappropriate to charge people $10,000 for me to clean up their credit when I can teach them how to do it themselves in a couple of hours,” he says.

Strong says there are lots of reasons for people to have credit problems--everything from businesses giving inaccurate information to reporting agencies to the people being their own worst enemies.

“Some people don’t have a clue that they shouldn’t bounce checks or be late with their payments,” he says. “And others have a mentality that tells them they can somehow beat the system.”

Strong says that there is no way to beat the system and that his class is not about trying.

It is about correcting credit mistakes, learning how to re-establish credit and learning about available credit.

Bond Rally

You’ve seen it on television.

Now it’s time for you to do it.

It’s time for you males to get out there and bond.

Bonding means that you are emotionally secure enough to tell other guys your innermost feelings.

Bonding also means confessing that you ask directions at gas stations and can’t program your VCR.

The Wilderness Institute-- which is devoted to outdoor experiences and is not some touchy-feely kind of seminar--is offering men two different programs in which they can see how well they like the idea.

There is an all-day program, Where Eagles Soar, March 8 in the Santa Monica Mountains, and a weekender in the Mojave, called Desert Solitude, scheduled March 20 to 22.

Both programs--sponsored by the nonprofit, ecological organization based in Agoura--will feature a macho outdoorsy sort of agenda to ease any embarrassment you might feel at poking around in all that emotional underbrush.

“Most of the people who will come to our programs are newcomers to this sort of thing,” says Brad Childs, founder of the institute. “We think that by combining the sensitivity with the outdoor experience, a lot of men in our area will be more comfortable with the idea.”

Brad and his brother, Randy, lifelong outdoorsmen and former park rangers, will be joined in these seminars by brother Greg, a psychologist.

“We find that a lot of men are interested in coming if they can bring their sons and open up a family dialogue,” Randy says.

But the biggest interest is coming from women saying they want to sign up their men.

Lights Out

When you look in the mirror at 7 a.m., do you see Ozzy Osborne?

Is the stagger from the bedroom to the bathroom in the morning a prelude to permanent injury to yourself and the stationary bike?

If it’s any comfort, there are a lot of others in the same bed, tossing for hours under their comforters every night.

According to Dr. Elliott R. Phillips, medical director of the Sleep Disorder Center at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, occasional sleeplessness can get to be a habit if you allow yourself to succumb to bad habits like taking your cares to bed with you, or trying to anesthetize yourself with drinks and/or drugs.

“These are hard times, and a lot of people are having problems getting to sleep,” Phillips says.

He does have some tips for getting yourself to conk out.

The most important thing is to keep the room you sleep in for sleeping. Taking your worries into your sanctum sanctorum is not a good idea. “A lot of people use the same room for their office and bedroom. That’s just like taking your work to bed,” he says.

Knock off the coffee, colas and alcohol before sundown. Also, nix on sleeping pills.

According to Phillips, you can’t force yourself to go to sleep the way you order a child to go to his room. You can set the stage by getting moderate exercise during the day, then maybe taking a soothing bubble bath before you hit the sheets.

Phillips says sex can be the prelude to a good night’s rest, if you are actually making love and not war. Apres sex is not soothing if there is a lot of emotional baggage, he says. Instead of that warm glow of relaxation, you are just warming up for the next fight.

Overheard

“What does it say about the economy that the Domino Pizza man delivers in a Mercedes-Benz?”

--Woman to neighbor in Woodland Hills