Oh, Boy! The Avengers are Back - Almost

"Disney And Marvel Team Up For New Cartoon Programming"
Mike Thompson, The Escapist (January 12, 2012)

"Starting this April, Marvel and Disney will provide you with an entire hour of cartoons jam-packed with comic-y goodness.

"Marvel Comics is joining forces with parent group The Walt Disney Company to create a new programming block of comic-based cartoons. The block will include the return of popular series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the launch of the delayed Ultimate Spider-Man...."

This is good news for the Lemming. Reruns of The Avengers have been playing on Disney Channel, late, on some weekend evenings. Looks like enough folks like Marvel's characters to warrant a comeback.

Well, probably good news. There's always the chance that the Ultimate Spider-Man will be a little too "ultimate:" with angst, acrobatics, or some other aspect of the show turned up so much we can't 'hear' the story. Or a director could forget that these are comic book heroes, and try to bring Shakespearean demeanor to Tony Stark and associates.

Or: maybe this will be another entertaining, relatively lightweight, bit of entertainment. The Lemming rather hopes so.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Comics Artist Will Eisner: Born 94 Years Ago Today"
  (March 6, 2011)
• "Dilbert, Lawyers, and the Lemming"
  (February 22, 2011)
• "The Horror! Monster Comics that Scared Congress"
  (October 31, 2010)
• "Soldier Zero, Starborn and The Traveler at Comic-Con"
  (July 23, 2010)
• "Protesting Against New Technology - the Early Days"
  (February 23, 2009)

"Beware Little Old Ladies With Handbags"

Particularly if they've raised a large family.

"Tribute to OAP who tackled robber "
BBC (September 19, 2007)

"A pensioner who chased an armed robber with her handbag has been likened to Glasgow Airport hero John Smeaton by court prosecutors.

"Helen McAdam, 71, found herself in the middle of a raid on a security van as she popped into her local Tesco for a pint of milk.

"The 5ft 4in grandmother swung into action after being threatened at gunpoint by 44-year-old William Carlin.

"Carlin was jailed for eight years at the High Court in Glasgow...."

"...She said: 'I tried to hit him with my handbag. I was angry. When I swung it he was away like a shot.'

"Mrs McAdam then chased Carlin and memorised the make and colour of his getaway car and a partial registration.

"She handed the details in to Tesco before carrying on with her shopping.

"When she returned home she told husband Danny: 'You'll never believe what happened at the supermarket, a man stuck a gun on me. I never put that on my shopping list.'..."

"...When asked by prosecutor Iain McSporran if she would do the same thing again if confronted by an armed man, she said: 'I'd face the devil. I've raised a big family and I'm afraid of nobody.'..."

I'm not at all sure that raising a large family is quite equivalent to combat experience: But I think it does encourage a certain level of mental discipline; and a capacity for reacting quickly and decisively to unexpected situations.

And of course, as law enforcement nearly always says here in America: conventional wisdom is that one should not take on an armed criminal. There's something to that.

A tip of the hat to irish_brigid, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this.

Grand Forks Flood and Fire, 1997

"The Great Flood of 1997 10 years later"
Minnesota Public Radio (April 18, 2007)

"The flood was a slow-motion disaster, the underpinning of which was a series of blizzards during the previous winter. When the snow melted, the southern end of the Red River flooded. Rain followed, then a freeze. It took almost two weeks for the disaster to reach its zenith in Grand Forks, N.D. By then, the skies were clear, the temperatures warm, and the disaster immense...."

Links to video, and other stories. Looks like a pretty good resource.

Grand Forks' downtown area was already flooded when a fire broke out. And spread, since the water system was no longer working.

It could have been worse.

In Kent, Minnesota, Pam and Victoria Wagner died. More at "Some losses from the Red River flood immeasurable"
(April 18, 2007)

"The great flood of 1997 in the Red River Valley brings memories of floating homes and burning buildings. When they talk about the destruction caused by the flood many people say, "Well, at least no one died." In the small town of Kent, Minn., a granite monument is a reminder that the flood took more than buildings...."

Pam and her daughter Victoria had to take a detour and hit water. The car submerged, but they survived and waded to shore. They could see the lights of Kent. Pam and Virginia started walking toward the lights. Normally, staying near the vehicle is a good idea. At night, in April, in Minnesota, around 10 miles north of Wahpeton-Breckenridge, it could take a long time for a search party find you. Dripping wet, with the only nearby source of heat and shelter underwater, odds are you wouldn't last long enough.

Pam carried Virginia at least part of the way. They covered a mile and a half before dying of exposure.


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More-or-less-related posts:

• "March 27, 2009
  Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 27: News Added As I find It "
  (March 27, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 26: News Added As I find It "
  (March 26, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 26: Concordia College Being Evacuated"
  (March 26, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 26: Need Help? Gather Neighbors"
  (March 26, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 26 - 43 Feet?!"
  (March 26, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 26 - Pretty Good News Resource"
  (March 26, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 26 - Fargo and Beyond"
  (March 26, 2009)
• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009: March 22"
  (March 22, 2009)
• "Fargo, North Dakota: Yes, They Walk Erect"
  (February 26, 2009)
• "Oops! 15-Ton Pay Loader Poor Choice for Ice House Trail Maintenance"
  (December 30, 2008)

List of posts about this flood:

• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009"