"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.

Two Decades Later: Voyager 1 Flyby of Triton, August 21, 1989

"Aug. 21, 1989: Voyager 2 Reaches Triton"
This Day in Tech, Wired (August 21, 2009)

"1989: Twelve years and one day after liftoff, Voyager 2 reaches Triton, the largest of Neptune's eight moons and the coldest, most unusual satellite in our solar system.

"Launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 20, 1977, Voyager 2, as the name suggests, was the second of two identical deep-space probes originally dispatched by NASA to gather data on Jupiter and Saturn. Their primary mission completed, Voyager 2 continued on to make observations of Uranus and Neptune, while Voyager 1 hightailed it toward the edge of the solar system. Voyager 2’s flyby of Triton was the spacecraft's last contact with a major heavenly body before heading off in the direction of Voyager 1 and interstellar space...."

That was 20 years ago, today. This short Wired article gives a brief overview of the Voyager 1 flyby of Triton and the two Voyager missions. A day over 32 years after Voyager 1's launch, both spacecraft are still active, coasting through the outer parts of our sun's heliopause, and expected to keep sending data until 2025.

NASA has a bit more information about Triton: "Neptune: Moons: Triton;" a more complete description of that color image displayed by Wired; and a 26-image gallery, including a few artistic composites and quite a number of images.

Including this color image, which seems to be the original of Wired's version:

"PIA00317: Global Color Mosaic of Triton "


"Global color mosaic of Triton, taken in 1989 by Voyager 2 during its flyby of the Neptune system. Color was synthesized by combining high-resolution images taken through orange, violet, and ultraviolet filters; these images were displayed as red, green, and blue images and combined to create this color version. With a radius of 1,350 (839 mi), about 22% smaller than Earth's moon, Triton is by far the largest satellite of Neptune. It is one of only three objects in the Solar System known to have a nitrogen-dominated atmosphere (the others are Earth and Saturn's giant moon, Titan)...."

Strawberry Fields Forever, Almost, Near Oxnard, California

City of Oxnard, California
Official city website

"...Whether you are visiting briefly, attending a convention, or reside here, there are many things to do, see and enjoy. Our history mirrors that of many other cities in this wonderful State of California, but we have our own unique features.

"In the years since incorporation in 1903, Oxnard has gone from cattle grazing, to sugar beets and beans, to orchards, to more intensive farming with several crops grown in a single year, to servicing the defense industry, and finally to diversified industrial, housing, and commercial development...."

All that, and more: There's the Strawberry Festivalin Oxnard. Which is hardly surprising, since a whole lot of strawberries are grown in Oxnard Plain. Which is why Oxnard has dubbed itself "strawberry capital of the world.